


Retribution

by TesseractTown



Series: Retribution [1]
Category: RWBY
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-19
Updated: 2020-03-31
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:08:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 53,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22796824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TesseractTown/pseuds/TesseractTown
Summary: Honestly- I'll come up with a better Summary later on.11 huntsmen and huntresses start out in Argus, all headed to Atlas for various different reasons. Some to fight Salem, and some on a bet. But all of the eventually get caught up in the fight with Salem. They trust each other, but when everything falls, who will they stay loyal to?
Series: Retribution [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1684606
Comments: 32
Kudos: 11





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey!! So this is the beginning to our little story. All of us are from a server where we had this brilliant idea to do this! While I am the one writing this and doing a ton of art for this- I wouldn't be able to do this without them!! I'm slowly making references and art for all of this, so I'll be putting them in the notes!

We all have different reasons for what we do. Everyone has a different reason for doing what they do and loving what they love. I have been taught to be cautious of people and question the motives of anyone who approaches me. To protect myself I need to distance myself and learn everything I can. 

I feel a tap on my shoulder as I am walking down the streets of Mistral. I reach for Crystal Thorn and turn around slowly, ready for a fight.

“No need for a fight. I’m just here to talk,” a girl with black hair and amber eyes states as she leans against the railing.

I raise an eyebrow, my hand still on Crystal Thorn, “So, what do you want?”

The girl raises a hand. “I hear you are one of the best info brokers there are. I also know you are gathering a lot of information on Remnant, so if you can tell me what I want? I’ll tell you to want you to know.”

Now, this is why I am an info broker. I study the girl before saying, “Of course, would you like to go somewhere more, not in the open?”

The girl nods. “The name is Cinder, pleasure working with you.” She sticks out her hand and I shake it.

“My name is Kyra, pleasure to make your acquaintance,” I say as I shake her hand. “Here, follow me.”

We maneuver through the streets of Mistral until we finally get to my building, it’s a nice-looking brick building. Mistral is where I have resided for a long time, though I do travel quite a bit. I open the door and motion for her to go inside.

I go and sit at the table on the far side of the room, she sits on the other side. 

“So what do you want?” I ask.

“Where is this girl at?” Cinder questions as she pulls out a picture that has a girl on it. The girl has emerald hair with red eyes. I tap into my semblance.

I look around as I see the emerald haired girl sitting by a silver-haired boy. They seem to be in a mansion of some sort? Where is this place? I move to the windows and look out to see pools of black, Grimm emerging from them. The door opens and a girl with white and black hair walks into the room and tells everyone to sit down. She says one word before I tap out, “Atlas.”

I come back to where I am at and look at Cinder, she looks back at me curiously.

“That girl, she seems to be in a mansion that has black pools with Grimm coming out of them? She was with a silver-haired boy, but there seemed to be more people arriving.”

Cinder thinks a moment nods. “I know where they are. Now for what you want.”

She dove into the world of Salem and the relics. I could fact check her on the Salem part because of my semblance. I knew there was something off with Remnant. But this big? Not even a clue.

My leg starts to bounce as she talks, partly due to me not being able to not move and partly due to me being nervous.

Once she finishes, Cinder flashes me a smile. “Well, thank you for doing business with me, hopefully, my answer was enough,” she says as she walks out the door. Then just like that, it was silent again.

I lean back in the chair, the front two legs coming off the ground processing all the information she said. Salem said ‘Atlas.’ Is that where they are going next? I put my face into my hands. Well, it looks like I know where I am traveling to next.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------

“What do you want from me?” I yell at the officer standing in front of me. “I don’t want to tell you a damn thing!”

“Sir, you are the code to cracking our case, your semblance..”

“I know what my own damn semblance does! Can I go now?”

My brother has murdered many people, and due to my semblance, the officers want me to help them with their case.

“Sir, we really would like your help on this case, we have beliefs that he has gone to Atlas, but we can not be sure,” the officer repeats for the millionth time.

I stand up and walk outside of the room. I run into the head officer. “Adrian, are you leaving so soon?” 

I roll my eyes and continue to walk forward until I am out of the police station. I just need to get away from them, somewhere where they won’t find me. They said he was headed to Atlas? That is where I am going to head, then.

The officers here have me under witness protection, thinking they can protect me. They want my help in finding my brother, who is a psychopath serial killer. A demon taking the shape of a human. They haven’t come face to face with my brother, they don’t know what he is capable of. They'd die before they could reach him. Me, though? I'm the most capable of taking him down.

I’m not going to let the officers try to use me as a tool to find him. I go to my room and grab a bag and start to pack. He’s going to Atlas they say? Then, that is where I am going as well.  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------  
I swing my blade over my shoulder as I stare my brother in the eyes, “What do you want?”

My brother steps forward. “Well Luke, you see, I don’t like you.”

Oh don’t worry, I know you don’t like me. My thoughts are cut short when my brother comes charging at me, his knives drawn. He wields double daggers, he also is a huntsman. I’m just one in training. I gulp as I throw my scythe back over my shoulder just in time to block the blow from his knives.

He spits to the side and gives me a crooked smile. “I’ll kill you, Luke, someday, not now but someday.”

I jump back as I rotate my scythe into a gun and start to shoot ice shards at him, which he dodges easily. 

“Predictable,” Paul sneers as he jumps up to stab me, I roll forward, out of the way and transform Piebald Zephyr back into its scythe form. I stand up and swing it in front of me, barely missing my brother. I swing it over my shoulder and start running, ready to strike. As the inside of my scythe comes around to him, he rolls around me and plunges his knife into my back.

I turn around in shock. Paul smirks and winks at me. “Got to watch your back.”

I collapse to the ground as Paul runs off into the distance. I scream in agony, then pass out from the pain.

I sit at the dinner table tracing the scar on my back from the stab that happened all those years ago when my mom walks into the room.

“Hey Luke, I thought I would let you know Paul is coming back home for a little while!” She says sounding all cheery.

My eyes just about pop out of my head. My brother is coming back home? She is okay with this? I stand up. 

“You are letting him come back home? After what he did to me?”

My mom’s face falls. “People change sometimes, Luke. He has changed for the better.”

I roll my eyes and walk upstairs to my room. I am not going to sit here waiting for him to come to me. My mom hasn’t seen what it was like. I’ve trained for long enough, it’s time to leave home and go on a nice adventure, away from my brother, away from my home. Atlas.  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------  
I grumble under my breath as I approach the train that is headed to Argus. I can’t believe I lost that stupid bet. Why do they want me to go to Atlas anyways? I turn around and wave to my friends one last time before I step onto the train car. I gave them my word that I would do this. I always follow through.

It was a dumb bet. They said I couldn’t stand in the cold weather for more than an hour. I took that as a challenge and decided to make it a bet. If I won they would’ve had to go set a building on fire, they said if I lost I would have to go to Atlas. Why did I agree to this again? Oh yeah, because I assumed I could do it, and now I’m going to Atlas, and it’s in the middle of a tundra! Oh, what did I get myself into?

Vacuo was perfect, it was warm enough to where it didn’t bother me, it rarely dropped below 60F. I really hope Atlas has some heavy coats.

The trains leave the station as I get a photo from my friends with a tag under it that says, “Have Fun in Atlas! You better keep us updated!”

Here we go.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------  
“Flame.” I look up at the sound of my name. “I have an assignment for your team.”

“Where?”

“Atlas. Ironwood is scared. Help him not be scared anymore.”

I nod in agreement. “For the good of Remnant, now and to eternity.” 

“For the good of Remnant,” the voice echoes. From the tone, it sounds like a dismissal. 

“We won’t let you down,” I say, and I get up to leave. The borders may be closed, but even a paranoid General won’t keep us out of Atlas. We have work to do.  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------


	2. 1

I walk down the streets of Argus, taking in the architecture. I know Atlas has closed its borders, but since when was I one to follow the law? If I want something, I’ll get it. I fiddle with my hands in front of me, trying to come up with a plan when I run straight into someone.

My head snaps up as I grab Crystal Thorn from behind me. The guy puts his hands up and steps back. “Sorry?”

I sigh and put Crystal Thorn away as I look at the guy. Black hair, somewhat muscular, weapon. Definitely some type of huntsman.

“What brings you around these parts?” The guy asks politely as he holds out his hand, “Name’s Luke.”

I shake his hand. “My name is Kyra. Trying to get to Atlas.”

Luke raises an eyebrow as he leans onto a wall, “You too, then? I’ve been here a few days trying to get in.”

I frown and look at Luke, why would he want into Atlas? Before I have a chance to say anything he cuts in. “Want to team up?”

It’s been so long since I have teamed up with anyone. I guess I prefer to do things on my own. “What makes you interested in teaming up with me?”

Luke pauses, then smiles. “We have the same destination and you look like a capable fighter. Based on your look, you were going to try to do it yourself anyways, might as well have a partner?”

I shrug and shake his hand. “Fine. But don’t be surprised if I run off when we get to Atlas.”

Luke and I start walking towards the military base when we see two girls walking our direction with scowls on their faces. I would’ve just walked right past them, but Luke decided to stop.

“Everything alright?” He asks the girls.

I sigh and stand behind him when the girl with silver hair speaks. “Trying to get to Atlas.”

Luke’s eyes brighten a bit, “We are as well! Want to work together?”

Is this guy going to invite everyone we meet?

The girl next to the silver-haired girl speaks. “That’d be great, our names are Mira and Maddy.”

So the silver-haired girl is Maddy, and the girl with black hair is Mira. Got it. All I have to do is get to Atlas and figure out what Salem is up to, I don’t have to stay with people. 

When we finally get to the base we see a girl climbing up the fence when Maddy yells, “Stop!” 

The girl stops and turns around then she continues as we walk forward. “You want to go to Atlas too? We all do, let's work together.”

The girl pauses and thinks before she jumps down and nods. “Name is Flame.”

As we make our way back to the inn we somehow pick up a few more people till we have a total of twelve. How did this happen? The best part? It seems I was appointed leader of all of us because of some bullshit reason like ‘looks most capable.’

We all go to a diner in the backstreets of Argus. It doesn’t look the most spiffy, but it will do. We all take our seats and order our drinks when I stand up.

“Alright, first of all, I guess I should introduce myself properly. My name is Kyra Baki.” Some faces flash in recognition while some just nod, “I am an info-broker, and that is what I am most well known for. I am also a huntress. Graduated from Mistral the previous year.”

I look at everyone’s faces as they all stare back at me, I shrug and move on. “I guess we should all introduce ourselves, and please say your semblances.”

I give a warming smile as I sit down. To my right sat Luke and he stood up first. “My name is Luke, my semblance is I can manipulate light and dark in an essence.”

We continue down the table. “Name is Maddy, my semblance is I can disappear and reappear.”

“Mira. My semblance is destruction, I can control it to an extent.”

“My name is Ray, I am here because I lost a stupid bet. Semblance is heat tolerance. Want to know the worst part? I get so cold if it’s anywhere below 60F. Do you know how cold it is in Atlas?”

Everyone laughs a bit as our drinks are delivered. I take a look at the menu and order a big meal for all of us to share when the next person stands up. “You can call me Flame.”

That is all she said, everyone frowns a bit, but the next person stands up and speaks. “My name is Sandra, my semblance is fire bending.”

“My name is Adrian and I have a great memory, which happens to be my semblance.”

“Name’s Shady, semblance is I can make jokes that make people laugh.”

“Ione, my semblance is I can sense danger.”

“I really hope we can get to Atlas. My name is Cadmium. The more Red Bull I drink the more powerful I become.”

I nod and stand up again,.“Thank you, forgive me if I forget your name. Take the night to relax and get to know each other, tomorrow we will meet here and I’ll tell you all the plan.”

I smile and sit down, taking a drink again. Everyone starts chatting away and laughing. Some of these semblances seem useful, while others don’t seem that useful, then you have Flame who didn’t even say her semblance.

I wave the waiter over. “Get me another one of these things.”

The waiter nods and takes my glass away when Luke taps me on the shoulder, I raise my head and look at Luke, “yes?”

“You spaced out, we asked you why you are on your way to Atlas,” Luke replies.

Oh, I didn’t even realize I spaced out. Now it seems this whole Salem thing is a big secret, so I can’t say that, so I just say, “I have some business to finish up there.”

Which technically isn’t lying, just the half-truth. I really want to trust these guys, but not with this. We just have to get to Atlas, then I can figure out my next step. Wait, what is my next step? What if I get to Atlas and I can’t do a damn thing? 

I groan as the waiter places my beverage on the table. I grab the glass and down it. I don’t drink very often, but when I do, I drink a lot of it, and my alcohol tolerance, really isn’t the best. 

I motion for the waiter to bring me another drink as our food comes. The pizza is cut as we all start taking our slices. The waiter brings me back another drink as I drink it while eating it.

“Isn’t this cool? All of us being on a team,” Ray exclaims as she slams her fist on the table, “New friends!”

“To new friends!” Maddy agrees as she brings up her glass and starts to drink it. We’ve all been drinking before this, but we just did get our food.

As we all finish our pizza and our drinks, I get out of my chair and walk towards the door, I turn around and wave, but everyone is frowning. I smile and stumble out the door. 

Did we ever get inn rooms? I don’t think we did. Oh crap, did I even pay for my drinks and my meal? Maybe? I don’t remember. 

I walk into the inn as Luke runs up behind me, “Are you alright, Kyra?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. Did we ever get inn rooms?” I ask Luke.

Luke frowns and puts a hand on my shoulder, “No, we did not. Here let's get you an inn room.”

We go up to the counter and pay for an inn room then walk upstairs. Luke opens the door for me as I walk in. I fall onto the bed and get under the covers instantly. I hear Luke chuckle softly from behind as he shuts the door. 

Plan for tomorrow? I’ll just decide in the morning, this bed is so comfy.

I wake up with a massive headache in the morning. Fuck, did I really get that drunk last night? I’ll have to remember not to drink that much again. I groan as I get up and tell myself, “I’m not an alcoholic.”

I sit up as I grab Crystal Thorn from beside me, I guess I must have slept in my clothes. I shut the window curtains in the room and sit down at the desk. If I am going to come up with a plan with a major headache, I need it to be dark.

Maddy said she could disappear right? She’ll sneak into the airship yard. Flame, I think, mentioned sometime between the conversations last night she could fly an airship. She’ll climb over the fence. Luke will go in with Maddy just in case anything goes wrong. I will use my semblance to see when it is safe to start the operation. Wait, we need a distraction. My mind reels with ideas till it lands on Mira, her semblance is destruction, and she can control it. Something like that should work.

I stretch as I stand up and groggily walk down the stairs. I’m already not a morning person, and it doesn’t help I have a massive headache. As I walk down the stairs, Flame hands me something, I look into my hand and see two tablets.

“What are these?” I ask Flame. 

“What do you think they are? You looked like you were going to need some this morning,” she responds.

I nod a thank you and walk over to the counter. “You guys make any drinks?”

The person behind the counter nods. “What would you want?”

I think a moment before responding, “Have any hot chocolate?”

She nods as she turns around to start making it. I sit in a chair and fiddle with the tablets in my hand. Luke and Flame come sit at the table I’m at.

“Not a morning person?” Luke asks.

“Tell me all about it,” I grumble under my breath as the waitress sets down my hot chocolate, “I’m supposed to be the leader here, not getting absolutely smashed.”

Maddy sits down at the end of the table, “It happens, don’t worry about it. Everyone could tell you had a lot on your mind.”

I smile at Maddy as I look down at my hot chocolate and pick it up and start blowing on it. Maddy gets up and seems to be ordering something. She comes back and smiles. 

“Seems like we are the hot chocolate squad,” she says nodding my way.

As my hot chocolate has cooled down, I put the pills in my mouth and take a swig. Now hopefully this headache goes away before I have to use my semblance, now that would be the true definition of hell. 

Everyone else starts filing down the stairs, ordering various drinks, then pulling up chairs to the table. I lean back in my chair, taking sips of my hot chocolate as everyone says their good mornings. Once everyone is settled, and my hot chocolate is drunk I start to speak.

“Alright, so I came up with a plan. First, I will use my semblance, but you guys will mainly be on your own after that. After I use my semblance, I am temporarily blinded afterward, so someone will have to get me onto the airship. But Mira, you are going to use your semblance in however way you choose to cause a distraction. Then, Luke and Maddy will sneak into the airship field, and Flame you are going to climb over the fence because you are the pilot to the ship. Then all the rest of us will be waiting for them to get back, because we need a quick getaway. Does that make any sort of sense?”

“Makes sense to me,” Flame puts in as she leans back in her chair.

Everyone else nods. I continue, “Finish up your drinks, then we will get going. The more daytime we have left, the better.”

My headache is subsiding. Everyone drinks their drinks in silence. After everyone has finished I stand up and we all start to head out the door. I take a deep breath as we approach the base. I turn the right and turn my walk into a run as we run a safe distance away from the base. We all get settled as I tap into my semblance.

I look around the top of the tower and head down to where the security room would be. I see the guys watching the cameras surrounding the base, let's hope this doesn’t take long or they are going to have me screaming in pain.

After a good five minutes, and I feel an oncoming headache, the guys finally get up and leave. I wait another thirty seconds then I tap out and scream, “Go!”

\----------------------------------

Luke, Maddy, and Flame all start running towards the base. Maddy disappears from sight as Luke stands in the light and blends himself in. Flame is climbing over the fence. 

Right as Flame jumps over the fence an armed guard sees her and yells, “Stop!” His gun tilted her way.

“Well, fuck,” Luke mutters under his breath. “Go to the shipyard Maddy, I’ll get Flame.”

Flame pulls out her weapon, ready for a fight when she hears another, “Stop!” in the distance. Luke’s voice. She puts her weapon away and holds her hands up. The guards come to seize Flame when Luke knocks both of them out with two seperate punches.

“Let’s go!” Luke says in a rushed voice as they run for the airship yard. When they arrive they see Maddy waving them over. They run over in that direction and hop on the airship.

“We need to get the hell out of here before anything else happens,” Flame says as she sits in the pilot seat.

“I can agree to that,” says Luke.

The airship's engines turn on as we hear the sirens start to go off.

“Now would be a great time to lift off, Flame,” says Maddy as she grabs her sword.

Flame rolls her eyes and takes off, “Let’s really hope they don’t have a way to call Atlas and say this ship was stolen, then we are in a hell of a lot of trouble.”

Flame flies over to where everyone else was waiting. Maddy throws her sword out and Sandra puts Kyra on it as she holds on. Once they get Kyra onto the ship, everyone else climbs on and takes a seat.

“Hold on everyone, we are shooting for Atlas right now,” Flame says as she takes off towards Atlas.

“You know how fun it is to be blind?” Kyra mentions laughing a little.

Luke rolls his eyes. “And while I don’t, I say that it was relatively easy to steal this airship.”

Kyra groans as she looks towards Luke’s voice. “Seriously, Luke, don’t jinx it.”


	3. 2

I lounge in the back of the ship as we fly our way to Atlas when I hear a shuffling noise behind me and look over to see Luke.

He waves and says, “How are you holding up?”

I close my eyes again and lean back again. “Pretty fine, just getting some rest before we hit Atlas. Probably not going to be the most warm welcome.”

Luke chuckles and leans back. “I don’t really even know what I’m going to do when I get to Atlas. It seems most of you have a definite reason to be in Atlas. I am just trying to get away from someone.”

I nod. “That’s a reason in itself, I’m sure you’ll find something to do there when we arrive. Don’t beat yourself up about it.”

I must’ve fallen asleep after that, because when I wake up, I’m laying on Luke’s shoulder. I feel a rumble and I jerk up and rub my eyes, “What in the world was that?”

Luke shrugs and yells to the front, “What is going on?”

We hear Maddy come running back to us. “We have arrived in Atlas, well, kind of.” 

The plane takes a jerk to the right, we all fly to the right. Maddy finishes, “And they kind of realized this ship is compromised and are shooting laser beams at us!”

The ship takes a steep left and we all stumble that way. Luke and I stand up and run to the front room where there are windows. We look out the window as we see a laser shine to the right of us. 

Luke thinks for a moment before yelling, “Open the window!”

I run over to the window and open it as I climb out the window. Luke looks out the window and up at me, “Are you crazy?”

I wink at him and climb to the top of the ship with Crystal Thorn. “Most definitely crazy!”

From inside I hear Flame yell, “What is Kyra doing and,” the ship maneuvers right to avoid another laser beam, “I don’t think we can make it!”

I grab onto Crystal Thorn as I dig it into the ship and sit on the handle, making sure to hold on tightly so I don’t go flying off. Luke sticks his head outside the window and starts doing something with his hands. I don’t really think much of it, till I notice that we aren’t jerking left and right anymore.

I see the laser beams going on each other side of us, nowhere near hitting us. They wouldn’t have that bad aim, considering they were almost hitting us every time before. 

I look down and yell, “What is going on?”

Luke, still focusing. “Light manipulation!”

Ooooooooh. That makes more sense. I lean back and enjoy the show of Atlas getting beat, but only in a sense. I’m not the most fond of Atlas if I’m honest. So coordinated, you need to have a little spice in your life. But Atlas doesn’t really think like that.

I feel the wind blowing in my face, while flashes of light flash by besides us. Atlas and Mantle draw nearer. What am I going to do here? I’ve always been one to plan as problems come along, so I’ll focus on that when I get there.

As we slow our descent into Mantle, everything becomes rushed as they already know we are here. I see a camera as I wave at it and flip it off.

Flame lands and we all jump off the ship and run through the alleyways of Mantle away from our ship. When we get a safe distance away we stop and regroup.

“Do we have everyone? Did anyone forget anything—not like we can go back anyways,” I say.

Maddy looks around and responds, “Everyone is here, and we all seem to be alright.”

"If we get caught and arrested I'm going to be so pissed." Adrian sighs, brushing off his sleeves.

Everyone looks around as we walk down the streets of Mantle. Till everything gets settled down, it might be better just to stick with these guys. No doubt the cameras caught me flipping them off. I literally did it at the camera. 

We look around and see soldiers running around, while the people in Mantle sulk around. Some sober, some drunk. I’m walking in the front keeping my eyes peeled for an inn when I run into someone.

“Oh my god! I’m so sorry!” They say as she brushes herself off.

I roll my eyes and give them a dismissive wave, “I should’ve been paying more attention.”

I take in his attire, definitely a huntress, “Do you know what is going on down here? It looks like an absolute disaster.”

They think for a moment and nods, “My name is Caiden, I was just headed home, we can talk there.”

I nod my head and hold out my hand, Caiden takes it and shakes it, “My name is Kyra. Behind me I have a bunch of people. Long story short, we met up just before arriving here. Not exactly a story for the streets with cameras in every corner.”

Caiden nods and we turn around and follow them back to her house. He opens the door and we all file inside and find somewhere to sit. What looks to be Caiden’s mother comes into the room. “You brought friends?”

Caiden chuckles. “They looked super lost, and asked if I knew what was going on, so I invited them in before they got themselves into trouble.”

His mother nods. “I’ll bring everyone cookies!”

Now that’s something I could get behind. Caiden continues, “Conditions in Mantle, really aren’t the best right now. There have been riots and Atlas has put stricter control on us, people aren’t happy. That’s partly why I invited you here, you looked so lost and you probably would’ve gotten yourselves into trouble. Your turn.”

They so far have been honest with us, so I’ll be blunt. “We stole an airship.”

Caiden looks shocked for a second then laughs. “That explains why there were so many soldiers and why you all looked so lost!”

We all exhale in relief before they continue, “So what brings you to Mantle, to Atlas?”

“We all have our different reasons for coming to Atlas, but we all couldn’t get in so we teamed up to steal an airship! They literally shot laser beams at us! Now that was cool.” I laugh.

“We all just about died, Kyra! How is that cool?” Sandra yells.

“But we are sitting here now aren’t we? So it was fun, dangerous, and cool,” I say with a smile.

I swear everyone in the room face-palmed at that moment. Caiden’s mom comes back into the room and hands us all some cookies. I bite into the cookie, “Thank you!”

“Anytime!” She responds and she takes a seat, “Sounds like you had quite the adventure here!”

“Tell me about it!” Luke says as he eats his cookie before he looks at Caiden, “You want to come with us? I don’t think we are splitting up quite yet, and even then some of us might not split up.”

Caiden’s eyes glow in excitement as she nods, “New friends! That sounds like a lot of fun!”

Here goes Luke being an absolute recruiter again. Of course he is. But Caiden seems nice enough and has knowledge about Atlas and Mantle. Then the sirens start going off.

“What is happening?” I yell over the sirens.

“Grimm invasion!” Caiden yells back over to us.

I look to the side as I grab Crystal Thorn, transforming it’s scythe form as I run out the door. I see Luke shrug behind me and he takes off after me, the rest follow.

I run with Crystal Thorn to my side, careful to not let it go flying anywhere I didn’t want it too, this thing would cut off a limb in seconds with all the blades on it. 

I see the Grimm dashing for us. As they leap up I swing my scythe over my head, cutting the Grimm in two. I dash forward, turning my scythe to the buster sword form with a flick of a level. It locks into place and I swing it over my shoulder splitting a Grimm’s face into two pieces. Luke runs beside me when we come to a skidding stop when we see other Huntsmen fighting Grimm in the streets.

I shrug and run forward, as I transform my weapon back into a scythe. I throw it forward, hitting a Grimm mid air that was about to fall on top of a girl that was in red clothes. She turned back and frowns but seems to shrug it off. I run forward, jumping over my scythe as I grab the handle midair and put it over my shoulder, pulling the trigger as I shoot backwards slicing through another grimm. 

I stand there for a moment, looking at my new acquaintances and the new huntsmen and huntresses fighting the Grimm. I transform Crystal Thorn into its carrying form, or it’s gun form, and start shooting at the Grimm, careful to not hit anyone, but enough to weaken them.

Soon enough, the sirens turn off and I put my weapon away as I walk over to my allies. We meet up then walk over to the other huntsmen and huntresses we met up with.

I speak first. “Hello, my name is Kyra, and these are some of my allies.”

The girl in the front speaks, “Hello! My name is Ruby. I put out my hand and she shakes it, “Behind me is my team, Team RWBY, we also have Team JNOR. Then my Uncle Qrow.”

I wave to them and I speak next, “We just kind of got together a few days ago, so we don’t really have teams.”

Ruby eyes beam, “You all fight so well together! Was that your scythe who flew above my head?”

Qrow looks alarmed. “You threw your scythe?”

I smile and look at Qrow. “It’s a special talent of mine,” I said jokingly, “but yes, I did throw my scythe, and before you ask, yes, I do know how to throw it and didn’t endanger anyone.”

Qrow thinks then nods and a girl that had orange hair the next to speak. “That was AWESOME. My name is Nora and would you like to come along with us?”

Ruby looks alarmed but allows it. I nod and smile, “That would be great.” 

We all start to walk forward when all of a sudden team RWBY falls forward, in what seems to be a rope that is restraining them, soon after all of us fell. I sigh as I watch the people who threw these at us pick up our weapons and load all of us up in a jail car, our restraints only around our wrists.

“This is more of what I was expecting,” Qrow groaned.

Ruby shrugs. “It could be worse.”

A boy with blonde hair speaks next, “I still can’t believe that guy with a fishing pole took us out like it was nothing.”

“Welcome to Atlas. Those were Ironwood’s Ace Operatives,” a girl with white hair says back at him.

Mira sits by Ruby and looks over to Ruby as they start to converse in low voices.

“Where are we even going?” I ask.

Qrow looks at me and responds. “Most likely jail.”

"God damn it." Adrian curses, leaning back against the wall.

That makes sense then, how are we going to get out of jail? What are they doing to my weapon? I sigh as I listen to the conversations that are happening. Mira and Ruby are talking. Luke and Maddy are talking as well. Nora is trying to bite through her restraints.

“We probably should introduce ourselves since we have time,” a girl with bright yellow hair states, “My name is Yang. Next to me is Blake. Ren is the boy sitting next to Nora.”

A boy who can’t be older than sixteen speaks next, “Next to me to my right is Jaune, and to my left is Qrow.”

I nod and introduce my team members, and I swear Mira and Ruby aren’t paying attention.

I speak again, “It is nice to meet you all!" 

I look out the window and see a huge tower, and we are headed towards it. “Looks like we aren’t going to jail. We are going to Atlas Academy. Looks like we’ll be seeing the General, for the better, or for the worse,” Ruby says as she glances out the window.

The airship starts it’s decent in front of Atlas Academy as the doors open and Ruby gets up, “Let’s go.”

We all climb out of the car, Ruby and I walk in the front, the respective leaders of our groups. 

“Now this is something I thought I’d never experience. Being arrested by these so called Ace Ops, and going to see the General. Don’t know if I should be honored or not,” I say sarcastically as we walk towards the doors. I hear Ruby chuckle softly from behind me.

As we walk into Atlas Academy I look around. Hot damn this thing looks grand. We walk over to the elevators and we all crowd into them.

The doors shut, and the elevator starts to rise up the floors. The elevator dings and the doors open, the guards walk out and we all file out behind them, we walk towards the door when suddenly a girl turns around, “Oh good! You’re here!”

Weiss steps in front of us, “Winter?”

The girl who I presume is Winter, and Weiss’s sister steps forward, “Weiss? What are you doing here?”

Nora flies in front of all of us and waves her hand in front of Winter. “Want to help us with these?”

Winter looks at everyone's hands, “You have ten seconds to take those off till I start hurting you.”

The guards look confused then frantically start apologizing as they take them off. I flex my wrists as I wave to everyone.

The General walks in front, “Please come in,” he says.

We all walk into his office and stand around as he walks up front, “I am sorry for how you were treated by my team.”

Yang spoke up, “Our reception didn’t really convey that.”

The general speaks next, “Things in Mantle have been, interesting, and who are you?” He looks at me and the group behind me.

“Me? Oh! Hello! My name is Kyra Baki, and these hooligans behind me are somewhat of my team currently,” I say to the general.

He frowns. “And how can we trust you?”

Qrow speaks up, “I know her name. She’s a very reputable info-broker. She would be a valuable asset due to her semblance. Her reputation precedes her. I would say she is trustworthy.”

The General looks to Qrow and nods. “I trust you, so I will trust your judgment on this matter.”

I look over to Qrow and he looks back over at me, I give him a thumbs up. I swear he almost rolled his eyes. 

Qrow continues. “We have some confidential information to tell you, James,” he glances towards my group and up at Winter and Penny.

I pause a moment and think about it. “About Salem?”

I think everyone's eyes popped out of their head, and my team luckily decided to keep their mouths shut.

“How do you know?” Ruby turns to me.

“Like your uncle said, my reputation precedes me. As a combatant and an info-broker. I know quite a lot,” I say.

Ruby nods. “Qrow mentioned your semblance, what is it?”

I look at Ruby and the General and nod. “It’s basically a spy semblance. In essence if I know what someone looks like, I can tap into my semblance to see where they are at that time, and hear what they are saying. So if I knew what any of you looked like, I could tap into my semblance and see what you are doing and saying right at this moment.” I smile.

Ironwood thinks for a moment. “That would seem to be quite the useful semblance, no wonder you are an info-broker,” he pauses, “I have a plan.”

He grabs a remote and clicks a button. The circle in the middle of the table starts to move up into a table, while the windows are covered in black. He walks to the middle of the room and brings up a picture of Amity Colosseum.

“Amity Colosseum was built to unite the world, it will serve that purpose once again,” Ironwood says as an antenna appears on top of the coliseum, “This is a global communications tower. After Beacon fell I knew our old system was outdated.”

Qrow speaks next. “James, this doesn’t take the entire military to do.”

“This next part will, when I finally tell the world about Salem,” it seems as the microphone just dropped.

Qrow looks surprised and speaks, “Oz spent many lifetimes keeping this a secret.” 

Ironwood looks to consider it then continues, “Keeping this a secret will eventually get us all killed.”

Qrow looks confused then nods. Ironwood clicks the button off, and the table goes back down into the floor and grabs the relic, handing it back to Ruby.

“You’re giving this back?” Ruby asks.

Ironwood nods, “I don’t want you to feel I’m keeping anything from you, for now I think it is safest with the people it came here with. That will be all for today. We will have a meeting in the morning discussing the next mission. I’m sure Penny will show you your quarters.”

Ruby nods and we all turn around and walk outside where we come to face to face with the Ace Ops.

Clover speaks first, “I’m so sorry with your rec-”

He gets caught off from when Elm runs forward and starts shaking Ruby frantically, “If we knew who you were we would be sitting and talking over a hot meal right now!”

Ruby laughs and waves her hand dismissively. “It’s alright, it was expected.”

Penny walks out and enthusiastically says, “I’ll show you around!”

Ruby and I smile and wave back at the Ace Ops as we start to follow Penny. My reasons for being in Atlas and Mantle have just taken a turn for the better.


	4. 3

After Penny shows us around we all stop at the dorms and look at each other.

“Time to split up into official teams, I guess?” Luke mentions looking over at me.

I nod. “Honestly, just split yourselves into teams and just let me know what team I’m on, I need a good drink,” I grumble as I turn around and start walking to the kitchen.

This is true, I do need a drink. I continue walking when I run right into someone, he grabs my hand before I can fall to the ground.

“Fuck. I’m so sorry!” I say as I look up to see Clover.

“Well, in my favor this is convenient, I was just coming to find you. The General wants to talk to you, Qrow, Ruby, Jaune, and I.”

“Can I seriously go get a drink first? That is where I was headed,” I say, walking around Clover. 

I look behind me and see Clover nod. “Be in the General’s office in five minutes.”

Five minutes?! I start to run through the halls until I skid to a stop in the kitchen. I quickly grab a flask and put some hot chocolate in it before running back out and towards Ironwood’s office. When I get there I push open the door and dramatically fall to the ground.

I look up with a grin, I see everyone looking down at me with curious eyes. I stand up and brush myself off as I say, “You really should give people more time Clover, I ran myself ragged out there.”

I take a seat on the far side of the room and start to drink the hot chocolate from the flask. I would’ve brought a mug, but I am not taking my chances running with a ceramic mug in my hand.

Ironwood sighs and stands up, “Thank you all for coming here on short notice. I personally wanted to tell you about our mission tomorrow and get to know a bit more about you, Kyra.”

Ah, I see where this is going, “Well which one do you want first?”

Before Ironwood could speak again Qrow speaks, “I know you to be an info-broker, but not just any info-broker. You have your own set of morals you follow and only accept certain jobs as long as they follow your morals. I also hear you are one hell of a combatant and can fight.”

I shrug. “Well, you aren’t wrong. If someone wants knowledge so they can go murder someone, they can get the hell out of my vicinity.”

Ironwood seems to take this all in and he nods. “How do you know about Salem, the maidens, and the relics?”

I nod. “I assume you know her, but this girl named Cinder came to me wanting to know about a girl with green hair. Never figured out her name though. It seemed as the girl and her worked together so I accepted the job, and she offered to tell me about all that stuff in return. Ooooh! Do you know how creepy looking Salem’s castle is? They had Grimm pools next to it!”

“So you can use your semblance on them now?” Ruby asks curiously.

I nod to Ruby and Ironwood speaks again, “So what brings you to Atlas?”

Oh, I forgot to mention that didn’t I. “When I saw Salem through my semblance to the first time she said ‘Atlas’ so I decided to come here because well, I assume you can take a good guess why.”

Ironwood and Qrow stand up. Ironwood says, “You didn’t tell us this?”

I rub the back of my neck. “I forgot?”

Ironwood looks confused. “How do you just forget something like that?”

I look around and back at Ironwood. “Just sometimes you forget things. I’m sure I would’ve told you soon enough.”

Ironwood sighs and sits back down. “ Well, thank you for telling us that we are seemingly the next target. This reinforces that we need my military here. Anyways, for the second thing I called you here for. The mine mission. There will be 3 teams coming in from each entrance, I’ll tell you your team assignments tomorrow. You guys need to clear out the Grimm since that is the sight for Amity Colosseum.”

We all nod to Ironwood, “That’s all I really needed to tell you, you’re all free to go.”

Yes! Free! Let me tell you, meetings are not really my thing. I get up and walk outside the office and back to the dorms when I am greeted by Luke.

“We got all the teams done, and you happen to be on my team!” He says as he waves me in the direction of the dorms. I follow him towards the dorm I would be resigning in. 

When we arrive at the dorm, everyone is in there, everyone.

Flame starts to speak to me, “We have Team KLFS. Kyra, Luke, Flame, and Sandra. After that we have Team CRSM, Cadmium, Ray, Shadey, and Maddy. Finally, we have Team MICA. Mira, Ione, Caiden, and Adrian.”

“Those sound like reasonable teams. So what are we doing the rest of the day, we have some time to kill, and we might as well do something fun,” I say and look at everyone.

“They have a lounge area! It looks like a rec room, and a lounge room with a kitchen in it as well. I say we could have a lot of fun there,” Sandra says.

“Great idea!” I push open the door and run outside of the dorm, everyone following in pursuit. Luke takes the lead as we all run towards the rec room. When we all arrive we all take respective seats on the couch.

“We seriously cannot have a party without food, therefore, I propose we go execute a raid on the pantry and uh, borrow the food!”

Maddy stands up and smirks. “Now this is something I could get behind.”

Adrian stands up. “Fuck yeah! Let’s go raid some pantry!”

We all start running the halls, we honestly probably sound like a stampede to anyone else. You have to have some fun in your life.

We arrive at the pantry and everyone starts picking out the food they want to bring with them when a guard steps through the door and has a confused face, “You know you aren’t supposed to-”

We all run back out as I wave to the guard and blow him a kiss. We run the halls till we get back to the rec room and drop all the food on the counter. Adrian and Luke start going through the food, organizing it into its respective categories.

I grab a box of cookies and lounge on the couch as I throw out a deck of Cards Against Humanity.

Luke turns on a movie and sits down somewhere along the couches. I start to deal out the cards and everyone picks up their cards.

I look at my cards, not too bad of cards, but not too bad.

The first black card reads, ‘You’re under arrest for ____”

I look through my cards and place mine facedown on the table, everyone does the same.

Luke, who is the one choosing this time, starts flipping over the cards and reading them out loud, “You’re under arrest for Hot Man Privilege. You’re under arrest for bootlicking. You’re under arrest for being locked in Ironwood’s Office.”

He continues reading them out loud till he finally picks Maddy’s card, or better known as the Hot Man Privilege card.

The next black card read, ‘I’m not one of your ____, Jimmy.’

This time it was my turn to read. Everyone places their cards face down in front of me. After everyone has played a card I start to turn them up.

“I’m not one of your disaster gays, Jimmy. I’m not one of your traumatized children, Jimmy.’ I’m not one of your several self-inserts and a lot of spiteful shipping, Jimmy.’  
I chose several self-inserts and a lot of spiteful shipping, which happened to be Sandra’s card. We continue to play Cards Against Humanity till someone ends up winning. In the end Sandra wins, probably because I picked her card every time. I swear it was on accident. We pack up the cards and Luke hands them back to me.

“Let’s play some video games now?” Ray asks as we all move to sit around the TV.

I smirk and pop my fingers, “You all are about to get your asses kicked.”

We all start this whole video game session, which includes a lot of screaming, kicking, playful punches, and me winning. The one thing I can take pride in is my ability to play video games.

Caiden pushes me backwards and I fall on my back. I stand up and brush myself off. 

I chuckle and sit back down on the couch. “Now that I’m done kicking all of your asses at video games, now what should we do. We got a good while before we go to bed, even if we do. But being the good team leader I am, I’m saying we are going to bed because we have a mission tomorrow.”

“Hey, anyone here know how to play table pool? If not I’ll teach you!” I say walking over to the pool table and placing the balls in the triangle to set them up. We divide ourselves into teams of two since there are so many of us and start to play. Maddy dismisses herself for a minute, claiming she needs to go grab something.

I line up my poll and take the shot at the 8-ball. I groan in frustration as I just launch my own ball of the table. “I swear this game is rigged against me!”

Adrian yells from across the table, “You about murdered me with that ball, Kyra! I think it is rigged against me? Where is Maddy?”

As if on cue Maddy walked into the room, dragging a big speaker behind her.

“Where did you manage to get a speaker that big?” Luke asks walking over to Maddy and helping her set it up.

“Don’t ask questions, just accept that I got us one big speaker,” Maddy responds as she plugs her scroll into the speaker and starts blasting music. We all shrug and start dancing to the music that is so loud you can’t even hear yourselves talk. 

Don’t even ask me how I managed to climb myself on the pool table, then proceed to slip and fall to the floor. I grunt and stand back up when the Ace Ops start filing into the rec room, frowning. 

Holding my side I walk over to the scroll and pause the music, seeing that no one else noticed their arrival. Clover nods a thank you in my direction and looks at everyone else.

“What are you all doing? Stealing food and a speaker?” He says with his arms crossed. 

Luke shrugs then smiles. “You all need to have some fun in your lives, why don’t you come join us?”

Clover frowns. “It looks like you guys about killed Kyra.”

Everyone turns to me and I wave at them, then wave Clover off, “I’m perfectly fine.”

Marrow pushes Clover out of the way, “We would love to join you guys!” He turns back to the Ace Ops, “You guys need to have some fun in your lives.”

Clover looks about ready to argue but ultimately keeps his mouth shut. I turn back on the music and everyone goes back to dancing while I fiddle around in the kitchen. We need some lights in here, some Kapow. 

Somewhere along the way, I managed to start a fire in the kitchen. Everyone turned to me in a panic, I mean there was a raging fire in the kitchen. I was just trying to make some food. I run towards the sink and try to put water on the fire. 

I grab a jug of something and start to pour it all over the kitchen. I thought it was water, but when I see the fire enlarge, I scream as I drop the jug. I just poured oil all over the kitchen counter. Well fuck, this isn’t good. Maybe next time I should check what I’m pouring on the kitchen counter?

I hear a sizzling sound and my eyes widen as I start to run back, just as the whole kitchen explodes into pieces.

Through all the smoke, I manage to grab Caiden and I drag him out of there. Whoops, I’m probably in a bit of trouble. I open up an AC vent and crawl into the AC vents with Caiden. I mean, I did just blow up their kitchen, in Atlas Academy. If I were the General I would have put myself in jail.

“Kyra, what in the hell just happened?” Caiden groans as we are crawling through the AC vents.

“Well, in short, I just blew up the kitchen, grabbed you, and booked it out of there,” I say as I see another vent opening in the roof. I stop at the opening and look out to see Adrian and Ray walking around looking.

I look behind me and whisper to Caiden, “Got any liquids on you?”

Caiden frowns but hands over a water bottle he was holding, “What are you-”

He was cut off as I kick the vent off its hinges, it lands on the floor, Ray and Adrian look up just in time to have water poured on their heads. I throw my head back and wink at Caiden before saying, “Just got to trust me sometimes, pal.” 

I grab Caiden’s hand and jump out of the air vents as we run away before Adrian and Ray have time to regain their composure. When we are a safe distance away I hear Ray yell, “THIS IS WAR, KYRA!!”

I hear another voice yell back at Ray, “What happened?”

“Adrian and I are soaked because of Caiden and Kyra!” Ray yells back.

The next words said would reinforce this war, “PRANK WAR!!”

What did I just start? We run down the hallway and come face to face with Marrow and Elm. While this might be a prank war, everyone wants to win it. 

They come running at us and I shrug, ready to duck under them at the last moment when all of a sudden they fall down confused. Atlas military handcuffs are wrapped around their wrists and they are shoved into a closet. I look up and come face to face with Clover. 

I put my hand on my hip and look up at him, “Well thanks for that, not that we needed it.”

Clover scuffs and mimics my motion of putting a hand on my hip and he speaks, “We make a pretty good team, don’t we?”

Caiden looks between Clover and Qrow and must have seen an opportunity,”Are you saying you would like to work with us?”

Qrow and Clover look at each other, then Clover nods, “We’d be winning this way by a longshot. You started the war, chalks up one point there. Then we shoved our team into a closet. Point us.”

I think a moment before responding, “So you are saying we would have two points if we teamed up together?”

Qrow speaks next, “That is exactly what we mean. There is no way I am losing to my nieces.”

“Then we have a deal,” I hold out my hand and shake their hands when we hear a voice behind us.

“What is going on down here?” We all hear Ironwood say. I smirk and run over into the room next to us and grab some string, I also grab some duct tape. I run out and Clover’s eyes widen and he shakes his head. I smirk and Qrow catches on and comes to help me. Ironwood is going to have to walk through that doorway to get over here, might as well chalk up another point.

We cut the string and securely tape it to the wall. I wave my hand as we hear his steps growing closer. We dive into a room and wait for Ironwood to come.

“What are you guys thinking? Clotheslining the General?” Clover whispers to us.

“I personally think this is a brilliant plan,” I whisper back as I peek out the doorway.

Ruby and Weiss turn the hallway just as Ironwood well, runs into our string and falls to the ground. He grunts and looks up, clearly very annoyed. Well, while we clotheslined Ironwood, we also accidentally framed someone else for doing it.

“What were you guys thinking? What is happening?” He yells at Ruby and Weiss.

Ruby’s eyes widen realizing what happened. “I swear it wasn’t us sir!”

He looks around, “Then who was it?”

Ruby and Weiss look at each other and shrug, “I have no clue who it was.”

He frowns, clearly not believing them. He stands up and brushes himself off, “I heard there was an explosion down here, what was it?”

Flame and Sandra turn the corner and see Ironwood, and our little prank on the floor. They burst out laughing before responding, “We overheard so we thought we’d come inform you. Kyra somehow blew up the kitchen while we were having a nice nightclub. Even the Ace Ops were involved! After the events Kyra ran and dumped water on Ray and Adrian, which started a very, very serious prank war. Which you happened to get caught up in.”

Ironwood frowns. “Whoever just clotheslined me is going to be in huge trouble when I find out who did it.”

Qrow and I instantly turn to look at each other. Clover snickers and I whisper, “You are technically a part of this too you know.”

Everyone continues on and we wait for a safe amount of time before coming out, I hold my fingers up to signal we have three points.

“Once Ruby and Weiss figure out who framed them, we are in big trouble,” Caiden says as we walk on.

It was all worth it in the end. If anyone needs some fun in their life, it’s Ironwood. Though he did come down here to investigate an explosion. An explosion that I may have caused. But in the end it was worth it right? 

Then we hear an angry voice through the speakers. “Everyone stop where you are, and come to the General’s office!”

Uh-oh. All of us look at eachother and shrug it off as we run towards Ironwood's office. We arrive there last and we stand by the doorway, everyone watching our entrance.

“I can’t believe everyone in this room is acting so childish! Especially you Clover and Kyra. You guys are supposed to be the ones leading these whole operations!” Winter says in a very disapproving voice. 

“I hear you blew up the kitchen in the rec room as well, Kyra?” Ironwood states.

“Now that was an accident. I thought making cookies for everyone would be fun?” I say, “and for the record, if you are wanting me to pay for it, I doubt I have enough lien to pay for it.”

Ironwood sighs. “This whole prank war thing, what were you thinking, Clover, with allowing this?”

Clover just shrugs. “It sounded fun, and well, Qrow and I make a great team. Now that we have Kyra and Caiden on our team as well makes us even stronger.”

I continue his statement. “We’ll kick everyone’s asses!”

Weiss pulls out a water gun and starts to spray Winter with it and screams, “Point Team Ruby and Weiss!”

Winter looks infuriated. “I’ll get back at you for that, Weiss!”

Ironwood sighs. “Just please go get some sleep. I don’t want another explosion happening.”

We all file out when Ruby announces, “Let's have a massive slumber party!”

This sounds like a bad idea. She continues, “We’ll have it in Kyra’s room since that is nearest! Everyone go raid other rooms and take all the mattresses to Kyra’s room!”

I run with the room next to mine and start dragging out a mattress and plopping it into my room. This is one big slumber party. Let me take a headcount. Ace Ops… 5, Team RWBY… 4, Team JNOR.. 4. Us 12. Penny will be joining, along with Qrow. That's a total of 27 people being shoved into 1 small dorm room meant for 4. Everyone is dragging mattresses into the room, and we all set them up, lined up next to each other on the floor.

“Are we really doing this?” Flame asks curiously as she peers into the room.

“Of course!” I say as I start to jump on the mattresses, “Slumber parties are a great way to bond!”

“Oh mattress trampoline?” Ruby yells as she jumps on the mattresses with me. Everyone slowly proceeds to come into the room and jump on the mattresses lined across the floor. 

I give Flame a push and she falls down onto the mattresses. She gets up and gives me a hard shove, and I go falling back into Caiden. I smile and stand up. “I always knew you would catch me!”

Everyone looks over to where we are and sees what just happened. Yang punches her hand and says, “This sounds like fun!”

She proceeds to push Blake over, whom in retaliation pushes against Yang who falls onto Weiss. What did I start?

The next few minutes are full of jumping on the mattresses and shoving people around. After a while, everyone gets tired and collapses down on the mattresses. I grab a few big blankets and hand them to various people around the room.

“This has been one eventful night,” I say out loud as I pull out my scroll.

“I’m surprised we all didn’t die in the explosion,” Luke mumbles.

“Whoa, whoa!! It was an accident! What part of accident do you not understand?” I exclaim.

“As much as I hate to say it because I love food, never let Kyra into a kitchen,” Nora says, “but someone else can make me food!”

"I'd rather not have people die letting Kyra into the kitchen again." Adrian huffs, but an amused smile is on his face as he goes to the farthest corner of the room.

I turn off the lights, but not before seeing a devilish grin on Ruby’s lips. Mira is looking over her shoulder, looking like she is about to burst into laughter.

I hear a bunch of dings on our scrolls, I grab mine and look at it again as I lay down and see in Bold text:

HOT PINK CHUNGUS COMMUNICATIONS CHANNEL

Kyra: Now this sounds fun

Maddy changed Kyra’s nickname to Feral Energy

Feral Energy: Are you starting this already?

Maddy: Yessir.

Clover: Was this really necessary Ruby?

Ruby: It will be great fun! You just wait :)

Flame: You guys know we are in the same room?

Weiss: What is the fun in that?!

Winter: Why am I involved in these childish shenanigans?

Marrow: Because you are apart of this!

Feral Energy: Plus we can chalk up the points of the prank war in this chat and pin it!

Yang: That sounds like one hell of an idea!

Feral Energy: List off your teams. Qrow, Clover, Caiden, and I are a team.

Maddy: Mira, Ray, Adrian, and I are a team.

Ray: When did I agree to this?

Mira: 2 seconds ago

Ray: …

Ruby: Team RWBY is a team!!

Nora: IM DECLARING TEAM JNOR A TEAM AND NONE OF YOU CAN ARGUE WITH ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ren: We weren’t going to try to argue with you Nora.

Flame: In that case, Sandra, Cadmium, Shadey, and I will all be a team.

Luke: If it’s alright Ione and I would like to be on a team with Marrow and Elm if that is alright with everyone else.

Elm: We would love to!

Marrow: Since when did you make decisions for me Elm?

Elm: I’m your senior

Marrow: You did not just pull that card on me

Elm: You heard me

Penny: I choose Winter, Harriet, and Vine to be on my team then!

Feral Energy: Then that settles it! For the record, my team has 3 points!

Nora: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! WE WILL NOT LOSE TO YOU GUYS!

Feral Energy: Come at me

Nora: Challenge accepted. PREPARE TO DIE.

This is going to be a long night, isn’t it?


	5. 4

I rub my eyes awake in the morning. I glance to the clock on the wall. 5:30am. Great. Another early morning due to a nightmare.

I stretch as I carefully step over people to get out of the bedroom. I carefully shut the door behind me and walk over to grab Crystal Thorn. I secure it on my back as I meander around till I end up at the cafeteria. 

I know having a flask of hot chocolate isn’t the most obvious option. But flasks are durable, and well, have a lid. I can’t run to meetings with a mug. I’m never late, just close to late. I walk over, and make myself some hot chocolate and pour it into my flask. I maybe could have fallen back asleep, but I’d have to wake up sometime soon anyways.

Training rooms, do they have those here? I’m sure they do, this is Atlas Academy. I pull up a map on my scroll and groan. Maps of buildings are so confusing. I put the map away and start to wander the school. I could get totally lost, or I could find what I am looking for.

I pull my scroll out to check the time, 6am. Not bad. It still feels like midday at this point though. I look up and see a sign that says training rooms. Apparently, if I look at my scroll things will magically appear in front of me.

I turn the corner and tap a few things on my scroll to open a training room. This is the time that I like to call, ‘Screw Off with Deadly Blades’. Calling it training time is just boring.

Ok well, if I’m honest. I have no clue how these training rooms work. I was never really the one to go practice in training rooms. You learn best from experience, so that's what I did. Maybe I have had more than a few near-death experiences, but I’m still standing here, aren’t I?

I pull out Crystal Thorn and line it up with a target in this distance. I shoot and hit the target where the heart would be. I will admit I don’t have the best shot sometimes. Guns really aren’t my thing. I transform my weapon into a scythe and run towards the target to confirm that’s where I hit it. Seems like it. That doesn’t happen very often.

I see a few other targets show up and I dash through them quickly, slicing each of them in half. I’m supposed to slice them right? If not that’s another thing on my list that I could get in trouble for. 

Feeling a bit more awake, I pull out my scroll and check it. I see a new tab that says ‘training room 3’. I click on the tab and see some settings. More targets? I tap my scroll multiple times. More targets start to appear and more frequently. 

I transform Crystal Thorn into a buster sword and start to slam it down onto the targets. As much as I love my buster sword, it is only good in certain situations for me. I transform it back into a scythe. Target practice.

I find a target and throw my scythe at it. I run to my scythe and the split in half figure, then I pick it up. My eyes quickly dart around the room and lock onto another target and I throw it at the target. I do this multiple times till I put Crystal Thorn away and take a break. I’ve gotten much stronger since I started throwing my scythe, but it isn’t a feather.

I walk outside the training room and sit down on a bench and pull out my flask of hot chocolate, and start to drink it when Qrow walks by.

“So this is where you went,” Qrow says from the adjacent hallway.

I nod and take another drink of my hot chocolate, “I woke up early and I wasn’t going to wake up anyone else up. It took me forever to find these training rooms.”

Qrow nods as his eyes flicker briefly to my flask. Before he could say anything, I hold out my flask and offer it to him. “You want some?”

Qrow looked panicked for a split second before shaking his head. “No. no. I’m not doing.. no.”

“Suit yourself then,” I say. I realize what I just implied. “It’s just hot chocolate. It’s easier to carry it around in a flask.”

Qrow releases the tension he has been holding in his shoulders. “That’s good.”

I pull out my scroll and look at the time 8:15am. Geez, time flies when you are having fun. I have a few messages from Caiden and Clover. 

Oh, the meeting this morning. I look up and ask Qrow, “What time was that meeting this morning?”

He pulls out his own scroll, “8:30- oh shit.”

If I remember right, the training rooms are on the opposite side of the academy from Ironwood’s office.

I stand up and start to run. “Hope you’re in shape because if we don’t hurry we are about to be late.” I come to a skidding halt. “Wait, I don’t know how to get back.”

Qrow sprints in front of me and I run behind him. “Luckily, I do. Otherwise, we would both be pretty late.”

We turn corners and run upstairs till we finally arrive. I push open the doors to his office as I collapse to the floor. Is this how I always arrive in his office, collapsing to the floor?

“Did we make it Qrow?” I huff out as I stand up. 

“With two minutes to spare,” he says.

I look around the room and see everyone staring at us with raised eyebrows. I go and lean against the wall, “Listen, no one told me what time the meeting was.”

“I sent you the time, but someone didn’t check their scroll,” Caiden huffed out.

“I was busy,” I say with an eye roll.

“Oh? What could you be so busy with so early in the morning,” Ray said with a smirk on her face.

“Oh you know, just screwing off with my weapon,” I retort back at Ray.

“You did what?” Caiden says standing up.

“Calm down, I simply found my way to the training room and was practicing throwing,” I say as Caiden sits back down, accepting my answer.

Ironwood walks in, Winter is in close pursuit.

“What is happening here? I can hear you guys from the hallway,” Ironwood says as he takes a seat at his desk.

“Nothing much, just everyone complaining about my choice of wording,” I respond.

Ironwood sighs and pushes a button that made the table in the middle of the room rise up, “Let's get on with this meeting, so we can get all of you in the field.”

Finally. As much as I like to blow up kitchens, which I’m still surprised I didn’t get in much trouble for, fighting is what I really like to do. Oh, and to clarify, I didn’t intentionally blow it up, but it happened and I take full pride in my work. 

Ironwood explains the mission, which I spaced out for most of. I probably should have been paying more attention, but well I didn’t. But I did catch what we are supposed to be doing. We are clearing out an old SDC mine. Yeah, that's about all I caught.

We get dismissed and we all run into an airship. We all take our respective seats and I stretch out my arms. “All that warming up this morning is sure to help.”

“So that's what you were doing!” Caiden exclaims.

I roll my eyes and cross my legs, leaning back in my seat, “Yes, that is what I was doing, were you really all that concerned for me?”

“Maybe just a bit?” Caiden says it more like a question than anything else.

“I say it’s nap time while we wait,” I say while making a note to make my yawn dramatic.

Clover stands up and looks at us, “Team assignments!”

Someone sounds happy about team assignments. Clover continues, “Caiden and Kyra, you are with Qrow and I. Flame and Mira, you go with Jaune, Ren, Nora, Elm, and Vine. Ione and Maddy you go with Team RWBY, along with Harriet and Marrow.”

Caiden elbows me and whispers in my ear. “Wow, we get to go with the big guys.”

I elbow her back. “You are looking at the declared leader of all of us.”

“Let’s go!” Clover yells as he punches the button to open the door and backflips out. That’s our cue. 

I run over and jump out of the airship. Landing strategy. I see a light pole and pull out my scythe, might as well differ from the normal landing strategy. Once I get close enough to the light poll, I hook my scythe around it, and spin around it a few times, before pulling the trigger on my gun to shoot me up, off the light pole. I land on the icy side of the mountain and I skate down to where everyone else has landed. Clover raises an eyebrow at me as we walk into the ice cavern.

Clover and Qrow walk ahead of Caiden and I. Those two seem to be deep into a conversation. I see a turnoff and I yell back up at them, “We found another hallway in the cavern! We are going to investigate!”

Clover turns around and gives me a thumbs up. I grab Caiden and we turn and walk down the cavern.

“I need a little adventuring if I do say so myself,” I say to Caiden.

“Are you not cold?” Caiden asks, referring to my outfit.

I look down at my outfit and shrug, “I don’t really wear coats anywhere. It doesn’t feel that cold to me.”

I hear Clover say something in the comms, but decide to ignore it as we see some centipede looking Grimm start to show up. I look at Caiden and nod. I pull out Crystal Thorn and start to shoot at them, as Caiden slices through them. Weaken them, kill them. 

After we clear the first wave, I transform my weapon into a scythe and start to cut through the centipede Grimm. As they are all cleared out I clap my hands together and give Caiden a high-five.

“Well done!” I exclaim.

Caiden high-fives me back, “What’s the fun in exploring if there is no fighting?”

We eventually come to a crossroad and I look both ways. Shrugging, I head to the right. Seems more like that way is going towards the middle than left. My direction skills probably aren’t the best.

This mine looks stacked with dust. Easily could go kaboom, which would be a little devastating. Maybe more than a bit.

“Is there a way to mute these comms?” I sigh as we walk.

“You probably want them off, you know, just to keep informed,” Caiden replies.

“I guess that is true, and if I did break the earpiece, that is another reason Ironwood probably wouldn’t be happy with me?” I reply back.

Caiden nods and looks forward, “You honestly need to start taking a tally.”

I look behind my shoulder and can’t see where we turned, I look forward and can’t see any entrance. Uh-oh.

“Hey, uh, Caiden, do you know where we are?”

Caiden looks around and shrugs. “I say we might be lost?”

I sigh and grab my flask of hot chocolate and take a drink, “We might as well set up camp at this rate.”

I hear a voice in my ear coms, Clover.

“Hey, Kyra! Where are you guys? Mission completed.”

Caiden and I look at each other in a panic, I buzz in, “We maybe are a bit lost?”

I hear an audible groan in the background of the earpiece. “How are we supposed to find you?”

I pause and think for a moment, “I could make an explosion!”

Everyone at once screams, “No!”

Probably for the best. I buzz in again, “Fine, fine. Listen, Clover, you saw the hallway we went down? We took a few rights. Never a left. Let's try to meet up in the middle. Keep your hand on the right side of the wall, and don’t take it off”

Caiden and I turn around and start to jog back, no time for slowly walking this time. I love adventuring, I never said I had a sense of direction.

Caiden and I run down the hallways, screaming out to Clover and the rest of the team, “TAKE A RIGHT!” 

Clover’s yell echoes back at us, “WHICH LEFT! THERE ARE TWO BRANCHING PATHS!”

Just as I go to respond I hear Clover yell back, “WAIT FUCK, THERE IS NO BRANCHING PATH! I SWEAR HOW DID YOU GUYS GET THIS LOST?!’

We turn corners quickly and I stop and look around and fall to the ground, “We are so lost.”

Caiden yells back, “JUST KEEP YOUR RIGHT HAND ON THE WALL AND MOVE FORWARD!”

Caiden bends down and grabs my hand and lifts me up, “We’ll be fine. They wouldn’t just leave us here.”

I close my eyes harshly and open them quickly, as I start running and screaming again, “ARE WE ABOUT THERE?!

I hear Clover yell back, clearer than before, “YOUR VOICES ARE MORE CLEAR! I THINK WE ARE GETTING CLOSER!”

They wouldn’t abandon us, that’s right. I turn another corner and look down the hallway. I sigh in relief as I see Clover standing there.

“Clover!” I wave my hand and him and turn and run at him and the rest of the group. He looks relieved.

“Never get lost in an ice cavern again,” he sighs before tapping into his earpiece. “Mission complete.”

“I personally say it was fun!” I say while laughing a bit.

Caiden laughs a bit and gives me a playful glare, “I say it was cold, very. Cold. How did I get involved in this again?”

I give Caiden a nudge. “You love it, don’t deny it.”

As we are walking out, Ruby comes running up to me. “You missed seeing the Ace Ops fight!”

I roll my eyes at her and crack a smile. “I’ve seen some pretty impressive fights before, some of which I’ve been in. I’d like to see them top that.”

Ruby smiles back and goes back to talking with Mira and Weiss. As we approach the airship Ironwood calls us over.

“More Mantle problems?” Qrow groans.

Of course it’s Mantle problems. Everything in this city right now is politics and Mantle problems. Ironwood sighs, “Yes. I want the people to feel safe, but without too many huntsmen in the same area.”

Clover nods and walks off. The rest of us do the same. I climb onto the airship and sit down. It’s been a long day, but at the same time it hasn’t been a long day. 

Flame comes and sits down next to me. “Long day?”

I groan and lean my head back. “Tell me about it. I’m just waiting till Ironwood throws me in a cell at this point.”

Flame frowns then smiles a bit. “I don’t think he would throw you in a cell. You have proven yourself useful to him.”

I look up in thought and meet Flame’s yellow eyes., “I’m just a tool for him to use? We all are?”

Flame nods. “You’re catching on here. Ironwood uses everyone he knows as tools for his own goals.”

I look at Flame then back down to my hands. Ironwood is doing what he thinks is right, but aren’t all we doing what we think is right? 

“I’ll continue to help him as long as I agree somewhat with his ideals, he isn’t crazy. He has more experience than all of us,” I respond as I look back up at the ceiling of the airship.

Everyone else starts to file into the airship and takes their seats. Flame doesn’t say anything for a moment, but when the ship takes off Flame says, “He does put on a good show of wanting what’s right, doesn’t he?”

We arrive back at Atlas Academy, and we all climb out of the ship and head inside, all the way up to Ironwood’s office.

“Good work everyone.” I swear he looked me dead in the eyes when he said that. “Now that the site is secure we will need to start doing supply runs. Clover can give everyone more information on that when we start.”

Everyone nods, and as that seemed to be a dismissive statement, we all started to file out, and to our respective rooms.

I flop down onto the floor when I enter my room, my team shortly behind.

“Where were you the whole ice cavern mission?” Luke asks as he sits down on a bed. “I heard you weren’t there during the main fight, though I wasn’t there.”

“Don’t even get me started. I figured Clover and Qrow are capable enough to handle themselves. So I told them Caiden and I were going to go exploring! Then we got a bit lost? Only a bit though,” I reply.

“And why are you laying on the floor?” Sandra asks as she leans against the table in the room.

“Don’t ask me, even I don’t know,” I reply back.

“This is the first night we will get to spend all together in the dorms!” I say as I sit up, “and for the record, I want a top bunk.”

Everyone frowns in my direction and shrugs. I stand up and walk over to the door. “And on that note, I ran out of hot chocolate, I say it’s time to go get some.”

I walk out of my dorm room and to the cafeteria where I start to make my hot chocolate. I am just starting to screw the cap on when I trip over something. My flask goes flying forward as my cheek hits the ground. I hear a sizzling and pops as I look up to see Ray and Adrian. Ray cheering, and Adrian with a scowl on his face.

“Point Adrian and Ray!” Ray cheers.

“Bloody hell,” I say as I get up and go grab my flask, “Got to give you that one though, thanks for my smashed cheekbone though.”

Ray winces. “Sorry about that. Not sorry about the prank.” Almost immediately, her grin gives way to a smile. She grabs Adrian and walks back down the hallway. What was that fizzling sound? I shrug it off and go back to the cafeteria, making sure to avoid the string on the floor this time, and make myself some more hot chocolate. Maybe it would be smart to clean up the mess I made earlier, but if I’m honest, I have no clue where the rag is.

I return to my dorm and crawl up onto my bunk bed and pull out my scroll. The rest of my team must have left to do something else. I pull up the messages I have from Caiden.

Caiden: Adrian looked upset, what in the world happened?

Kyra: I swear it wasn’t me. Why am I your first assumption?

Caiden: He came in mumbling about hot chocolate, who else could it be?

Kyra: Don’t ask me. They were the ones who made me trip while I was screwing the cap onto my flask full of freshly made hot chocolate.

Caiden: Point us? 

Kyra: Point them.

Caiden: Darn

HOT PINK CHUNGUS COMMUNICATIONS CHANNEL

Ruby: Good Job today!!!!!!

Clover: Did great today. 

Feral Energy: AND there were no explosions.

Qrow: That’s honestly surprising.

Caiden: Listen, if anyone was going to die today in an explosion, it would have been me.

Feral Energy: I wasn’t actually going to blow the place up you know.

Weiss: You blew up a kitchen

Feral Energy: Are we still talking about that? Comeon that was ages ago

Winter: That was yesterday, and you could have severely hurt someone and damaged the structure.

Feral Energy: But everyone was A-Ok!

Clover: I’m really not sure how to this minute.

Flame: Just be grateful we are alive.

Ray: We scored a point in the Prank War today!

Adrian: At the expense of my arm! Don’t forget that

Ray: Hush. ANY VICTORY COUNTS. (is your arm ok though)  
Adrian: :’)

Nora: TEAM JNOR WE NEED TO HAVE A MEETING

Oscar: We are in the same room as you, Nora.

Penny: What counts as a prank?

Feral Energy: Anything you want Penny

Winter: Do not say that

Feral Energy: I just did

Penny: So if I burn a hole in the wall of a dorm it counts?

Feral Energy: Yes

Winter: We need to have a talk Kyra. Penny, do not listen to her.

Feral Energy: Hard pass on that one.. what does Qrow call you again? Ice Queen? Yeah I’ll go with that.

I see a notification pop up on the top of my screen, it’s a private message from Caiden.

Caiden: Watch out, I heard some elegant stomping outside headed your direction.

Kyra: Ruh-Roh. The Ice Queen is coming for me.


	6. 5

Well, this is going to be fun. I sigh as I grab Crystal Thorn and turn it into its scythe form, I put the weapon behind me, leaning up against it as I wait for the one and only Winter Schnee to waltz through the door in all her high dignity. I pull out my scroll and click the record button and shove it into my pocket, might as well record the experience of a lifetime.

The door gets shoved open and I see Winter standing there with a surprised look on her face. I smirk and wink at her, “Weren’t expecting this were you, Ice Queen?”

I see Caiden’s face pop up behind Winter and peer in at me. Caiden looks like they are about to burst out laughing. I throw a thumbs up, and Winter turns her head around to see no one. Good job Caiden. First, you save my ass, and now you are encouraging me. I like where this is going.

“Miss Baki, your behavior in the group chat was unacceptable. Penny will actually go and burn through a wall if you encourage that kind of behavior,” Winter says as she grabs her sword and puts it in front of her.

I shrug and continue to lean up against Crystal Thorn, “I found it funny if I’m being honest. Did you seriously come all the way here just to, well, have a little talk with me? Seems like you actually care about something here.”

Winter scowls, “I do not want you and your crew to cause any more destruction, that’s it.”

“Hmmmmmm, it sure doesn’t seem like that, Ice Queen. I like the nickname Qrow has for you, rolls off the tongue well, wouldn’t you say?” I respond, the smirk still on my face.

I can’t tell if Winter’s scowl deepens as she says, “Stop messing around, this is serious business.” 

I stand up straight, one hand resting on the top of my weapon, “But what is the fun in that? We got our missions done, you don’t have to be professional all the time!”

Winter raises an eyebrow, “This is the Atlas militar-”

I cut her off mid-sentence, “You think I care that I’m working with the Atlas Military. They wanted me and my group to help you guys. Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful for it, makes my job a lot easier, but I’m not changing my whole demeanor for this.”

Winter seems to think a moment before saying, “I heard you got lost in the mine.”

I nod, “Yes, but that was on accident, I thought I might as well explore a bit since they seemed to have it handled.”

Winter frowns, “That is very irresponsible of you, you should have stayed on the task at hand.”

I smile, “Clover did approve it, you know. Get a grip, Ice Queen, you weren’t there.”

That seemed to piss Winter off a bit more than she already was, because all of a sudden, I had a sword being pointed at me. Looks like I might have gotten on her nerves, “Going to stab me, Ice Queen? I’m sure Ironwood wouldn’t appreciate you putting me in a hospital, though I don’t think you could land a blow on me that would put me in a hospital.”

Winter comes dashing at me ready to strike, I grab Crystal Thorn and smash my body through the window. I wave with my free hand as I see Winter gaping through the window. I look down, it’s just a little bit of a way down, right? Wrong.

Why are our rooms so high up, and why did I jump out of my window? Oh yeah, because Winter was charging at me and I need the thrill of almost dying due to a fall, right? I look down and see students gaping up at me, yeah I probably need to focus on how I am going to land. Same landing strategy as last time since I don’t want to shoot bullets down there when there are students.

When I approach a pole I hook my scythe around it and swing around it a few times before launching myself off it onto the ground. I brush myself off and give a thumbs up to the students before I look at the door to see Winter standing at it. Looking a bit surprised, and a lot mad.

“What were you thinking?” She screams at me.

“Awww, do you actually care for me?” I scream back. 

She scowls and comes running at me. I block her blow with my scythe. I run towards the doors of Atlas Academy, and all the students step back. I mean I did just fall out of the sky, then have Ironwood’s right-hand woman come after me. I would probably step back too. 

When I get to the doorway, Winter right behind me, I turn my scythe to be horizontal, getting it caught in the doorway. Winter, not having enough time to stop, hits the handle of my scythe, I smirk as I jump on top of my scythe and quickly pull the trigger so my scythe and I go spinning in the air away from Winter.

When I land I look back at Winter, whose eyes lock with mine. This time I take the time to run at her, she prepares to strike back. As I swing at her, she goes for my legs. I jump over the sword but fall to the ground.

She looks down at me. “What was this about not being able to put you in a hospital?”

I shrug. “Don’t get too cocky now.”

She looks ready to strike again, don’t get me wrong though, not a strike to kill me, just show me who is in charge.

I roll my eyes as I quickly pull a lever on my scythe. My scythe and handle quickly detach and turn onto chakrams. I use the handle chakram to block the blow and roll out of the way.

Winter looks surprised. I let go of my handle to quickly get away. I have my heavily bladed chakram left. Time to get the handle back.

Winter comes running back towards me, and I duck under the sword and start running for my handle. Winter, after realizing what happened, does the same. I dive down and grab my handle, I pull two levers again and attach the handle to the scythe. I look back up and see Winter kneeling with her sword in the ground. Bloody hell.

I look and see that she has summoned a Beowolf. This is gonna be fun. I look at both of them and sigh.

“Are you going to give up?” Winter asks smugly.

I feel a tap on my shoulder and I look behind me to see Caiden. Caiden looks ahead of me to see Winter and the Beowolf, “Looks like you might need some help?”

I roll my eyes at Caiden, “What does it look like?”

Caiden crosses their arms and sighs. “Why am I the one always saving you?”

I wink at Caiden and look forward, “Because, well, sometimes I get myself in some sticky situations. But honestly, there has been only two times I can count.”

Caiden sighs, “YEAH, since we ARRIVED here! We haven’t even been here that long!- KYRA! WATCH OUT.”

Caiden grabs my shoulder and shoves me to the ground, they land on top of me. We both stand up and see the Beowolf, well, it just about took our heads off.

“Caiden! You think you can deal with the Beowolf!” I yell at Caiden as I run for Winter.

“Do you even have to ask?” Caiden yells back.

Through the corner of my eye, I see Luke, Maddy, and Mira run out of the building and yell, “What is going on out here!”

Winter prepares for me to hit her, I roll to the side of her and swing my scythe over my shoulder to land a blow on her arm. Winter just in time catches my scythe with her sword, and when I mean just in time, I mean her sword is on her shoulder.

We both jump back as we run in circles, each taking blows at each other, blocking each other. I look over my shoulder to see Caiden making her way through the Beowolf. I glance back over at Winter and wave, “Hang on, Ice Queen!”

Caiden makes eye contact with me and I motion my eyes away from the Beowolf. Caiden gets the message and runs backward. I sprint for the Beowolf and pull the trigger to my scythe a few times to gain speed. When I get to the Beowolf my scythe hooks around it and I pull the trigger once again to slice it in half.

Caiden and I run up to each other and give each other a high-five before turning back to Winter. When our little duel gets interrupted.

“What is going on out here?” Uh-Oh, that’s Ironwood’s voice.  
I turn around and wave, “Hello Ironwood.”

He frowns, “Miss Baki, don’t I deserve a little more respect considering you and my Ace Operative are fighting in the courtyard for everyone to see? Not to mention you knocked out your window.”

I rub the back of my neck, “Oh yeah, um, that was me! But trust me, it was fun.”

Clover was standing behind Ironwood and he steps forward, “The two of you are fighting when we have more important issues! One of you could have been hurt! We need both of you on the field to get Amity up and going.”

Ironwood nods, “I’m letting both of you off the hook this time, but if I catch any of you fighting again, there will be serious consequences. We have more important matters to focus on. I was coming to find you to have a meeting with you and Clover, Kyra. But my job of finding you wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be, considering you were fighting in the courtyard. Come, we are going to my office.”

I wave back to Caiden who gives me a worried look, I shrug back and continue to walk beside Clover behind Ironwood.

Clover looks to me and grabs my arm to stop me so we get farther behind Ironwood before continuing, “Do you understand how reckless that was? Ironwood might not give you two any sort of punishment, but I’ll give you a good talking to.”

Not knowing what to say I just look to the ground. Clover continues, “Jumping out of your window? You know how high up we are, that could have gotten you killed, Kyra! Gotten you killed, all for what? Losing a bit of pride?”

I look at Clover, “She caused it?”

Clover frowns, “I wasn’t there, but I know somewhat how you work. I guarantee you were ready for a fight. You didn’t have to jump out of that window.”

I gaze up at Clover. “I guess I didn’t have to jump through the window.”

Clover speaks again, “Do you understand the panic that broke out between everyone when they heard you jumped out of a window? We all know you are well capable, but one slip up when you are falling through the air and you are dead. Please, don’t be that reckless. Do it for yourself, and here, if you can’t do it for yourself, do it for the people who care for you.”

We walk in silence until we approach Ironwood’s office. When we arrive he sits down in his chair and we stand there, waiting for what he is going to say.

“I was planning on giving everyone their huntsmen licenses, and before you say anything let me finish,” he gives a pointed look to me, “Ruby and her group didn’t graduate an academy before they got thrown into this mess, if anything, they deserve them. Kyra, your group, along with anyone, it will help with missions to have a huntsman license. Plus, I can’t let anyone run around with weapons without a license. You work with the military now, and we will also be looking into upgrading your weapons now that we know we can work with you. You guys, even you Kyra, have not shown any of us any reason to distrust you thus far. But know that at any moment we can revoke your license,” Ironwood finishes.

I nod. “Thank you for giving the rest of my team that doesn’t have licenses, their licenses. I’m sure it will mean a lot to them.”

Ironwood nods. “I would like to meet in the dueling room in about an hour. Clover, you go gather up Team RWBY and the others, while Kyra, you go gather up your group.”

We both nod and turn around and start to walk out of the room. I turn to head down to the dorms where we are residing. I pause as I walk by our dorm room as I hear a voice inside.

“...and our enemy may be immortal, but that does not mean unstoppable. Violence and peace both have their place,” a voice I’ve never heard before started to say.

“Exactly. Things are going well here. I’ve joined a rather large team, we’ve been working with the General on this latest project. Ozpin, the silver-eyed girl, and Kyra Baki are here.” Flame says.

Hold up, did I just hear my name? I probably shouldn’t be eavesdropping, but if you take my semblance into account, it’s kind of what I do. I start to hear the woman speaking again when I hear a crash. I run out and look down and see that Qrow had dropped some plates. I wave down at him, and he waves back up at me. 

I walk back over to the door and hear Flame say, “I can do that for you.”

The woman speaks again, “Very good, we can use all the help we can get.”

I decided I probably have wasted enough time and open the door to where I see Flame on her bed with a computer, the back facing me. Flame speaks again to the computer, “Oh! Kyra is here. I’ve got to go, love you, Mom!”

Flame shuts the computer and smiles at me. I ask, “Were you talking about Salem? With… your mother?”

Flame nods, “The eternal war, yes. There are more factions around than just Ozpin’s and Ironwood’s, you know. I’m part of a group who split off from Oz some time ago, but kept up the fight independently. We all know how important it is to keep Remnant safe from…” Flame rolls her eyes. “Interference.”

“I see,” I say. “That explains how you already knew so much before we met the Ace Ops.”

“That’s right. My mother is actually our current leader. Her name is Hope. I wouldn’t expect much help though, she’s off in Vacuo. We’ve got enough people here to handle anything Salem might throw at us.”

I relax a little bit and smile back at Flame, I pull a chair over and sit down in it, “You sound like you sure admire your mom.”

Flame nods, “I really do. She’s an admirable woman. But enough about me, what did you need?”

I stand up again, “Oh yeah! We are all needed in the dueling room, Ironwood has a little… surprise for everyone!”

Flame stands up and puts their computer away, “Great, let’s go.”

We gather up everyone and start to head towards the dueling arena. Caiden is walking to my right, and Flame to my left.

“What is this surprise, Kyra!” Caiden asks enthusiastically.

I roll my eyes, “It’s not a surprise for you, only for Flame and a few other individuals, but I decided to take everyone anyways.”

Caiden frowns then smiles. “So you didn’t get in trouble from Ironwood?”

I laugh, “Luckily, not, though someone needs to fix the window.”

Flame looks over in our direction, “It’s going to be a colder few nights.”

We finally arrive and we all step through the doors to the stadium, where we see everyone waiting for us.

I turn to everyone and state, “Flame, Adrian, Ray, Sandra, and Mira, please go over to Ironwood. As for the rest of us? Just get comfy.”

I walk over to where Ironwood is standing as well and stand next to Qrow watching as all the kids, wait why am I calling them kids, I’m literally the same age as some of them. Watching as everyone gets their licenses.

Honestly, I spaced out during Ironwood’s little speech he gives, but tune in again as I hear Ren say, “Wait, you are giving us our huntsmen licenses?”

Winter responds with, “You are all being granted your huntsmen licenses, today.”

Penny keeps going through the line as Ironwood continues, “I know this is a little ahead of schedule, but brothers know you deserve it. I regret that I couldn’t do something a little more ceremonious for the occasion.”

Ruby goes next, “I-I mean we, are honored, General Ironwood. But you really don’t have to do this.”

Ironwoods stops Ruby, “Please, with the threat of Salem still out there and tensions rising in our kingdom, I certainly could use more trustworthy fighters by my side, I should be so lucky to have all of you,” he glances over at Ruby, “It’s okay, it’s a big moment, and what better way to celebrate it here, with people you care for.”

“That’s just about all of the pomp I have in me. If you excuse me, I have to get back to running this operation, uhh, well then, enjoy the cake.”

Winter and Ironwood turn around and walk out of the room. I hear Team RWBY talking in the background and Qrow walks over to them, “Geez guys, lighten up a bit, enjoy yourselves, you’ve earned it.”

Nora brings her arms up in a dramatic pose, “Finally, someone said it, who wants to kill some cake.”

Everyone heads over to the cake while I head over and sit in the chairs, watching everyone slowly get their slices of cake when Caiden sits down next to me.

“I remember when I finally got my huntsman license. It was a big moment,” Caiden says.

I look over at Caiden, “For me, it wasn’t really a huge moment, yes, I was in the academy, but I was already way ahead of the class, I mean I had my info-broker business while I was still in school. I was doing stuff any normal student couldn’t do. Getting my license was just a relief that I didn’t have to find ways to get around it,” I reply.

Caiden nods, “Why did you want to become a huntress in the first place?”

I pause and think about it a moment, “I, that’s a hard question, like deep down I know I have always wanted to be one, I’ve wanted to fight, try to make things right. I want to help people and try to make the world a better place. I also love the thrill of an adventure, not knowing what the next day will bring. It’s not like any of my family was in this line of work either, I had to train myself, and learn what I know based on what I’ve seen. Sooner or later, I started my info-broker business, and well, I unlocked my semblance. I became the best info-broker there is, which does bring some nasty people along. So I also had to learn to protect myself as well. So it’s probably a mix of me wanting to help people, the thrill, and to protect myself, what about you since I just spilled my life’s story.”

Caiden chuckles and leans back in their chair, “I came one out of necessity. My semblance, I can hack stuff, I found a lot of information, dangerous secrets, corruption and I knew I had to do something about it. So I decided to train as a huntsman to be able to do something about the corruption in the world. I needed to be able to protect myself from the bad people I plan to expose. I haven’t quite gotten there yet, but someday, I will bring them down,” Caiden finishes.

I nod, “That’s honorable, and I would love to help you if you’ll let me.”  
Caiden smiles at me, “I would love your help. It only can be a one-man job for so long.”

I see Flame approach us and take a seat, “I’m assuming this seat is free?”

“Of course! Please sit, we are just talking about why we wanted to become huntsmen and huntresses,” I respond.

Flame smiles and nods, “Not much for celebrations?”

I shrug, “It’s been a long day, I’d rather just sit around and watch.”

Flame nods, “I can respect that.”

Caiden pipes in, “Hey Flame! Kyra and I were going to go cafe hunting tomorrow down in Mantle, want to come?”

Since when were we doing this? But I decide to keep my mouth shut and glance towards Flame, they respond with, “Sure, just message me the information, though I must ask, what is cafe hunting?”

Caiden chuckles, “Well we need a place to dine after a long day, so we need to go find a nice, cozy cafe that has some good damn coffee.”

I sigh, “And some good damn hot chocolate.”

Flame then says, “And some good damn apple cider.”

I stand up and exclaim, “HOT DRINK GANG!”

Caiden rolls their eyes, “No need to get so excited over this.”  
I roll my eyes, “Don’t you know me? We always need energy, and I feel a lack of energy.”

Flame sighs, “Didn’t you say a minute ago you’ve had a long day, and you still have energy?”

I give a straight face and Flame and cock my hip and rest my hand on it. I say with a raised eyebrow, “I always have energy. I could be in my grave and radiating chaotic energy.”

Flame rolls her eyes and leans back into their chair. “Of course you would say that.”

I smile a cocky smile, my hand still resting on my hip, “I’ve been told I have amazing character.”

Another voice approaches behind us, “Tell me about it.”

I whip around to see Adrian, “HEY!”

Adrian smirks and puts up his index finger and moves it make and forth, “Now, now don’t get too cocky.”

I cross my arms and huff, “That was rude. Don’t burst my bubble.”

Ray appears behind Adrian, “It’s already been burst, Kyra.”

“Wow, thanks for the help, Ray,” I respond as I run over to where there are a couple folding chairs, I jump onto the folding chair, my foot resting on the top of it, gracefully, it starts to fall over, where I go a summersault as it hits the ground, “See? No one burst my bubble!” I yell back at them.

I swear they all rolled their eyes when we get called over by Ruby, “Come on guys! We are headed out!”

We all run over and exit the room. But I don’t stop walking there, I continue to run down the halls till I enter Adrian’s room. Adrian has this one coming for him. What does he have in here that I could use against him?

Why do they have an air horn in here, I mean they have multiple. I grab one of the airhorns quickly and find some duct tape. I tape the airhorn perfectly so that anytime someone adjusts the chair it will go off. I hear footsteps and I dash out of the room and start to casually walk towards my dorm when Sandra runs up to me, “Thanks for that.”

I tilt my head in her direction, “For what?”

She smiles, “For everything. That would’ve never happened if it wasn’t for you.”

Oh. My team got them because of me? No way, “I had nothing to do with it.”

Sandra sighs. “Just accept that you did,” and with that, she walked off. I’m never going to hear the end of some of the stuff that has happened these past few days. My scroll dings.

Nora: I WON THE COMPETITION!!!!!!!!

Ren: What competition, Nora?

Nora: I ate the most cake slices

Weiss: No one even questioned that, Nora, you basically ate the whole cake before anyone could even GET a slice

Feral Energy: There was cake?

Clover: Were you not paying attention?

Qrow: What do you think Clover, this is Kyra we are talking about. Also, Kyra, you recorded the whole uh Winter thing, right? Send it over my way.

Feral Energy: I AM RIGHT HERE

Qrow: We know.

Clover: Have we gotten any more points?

Feral Energy: Not yet.. But soon

Adrain: What did you do this time?

Feral Energy: Anything and Everything. Trust me, you’ll love it. ;)

Ray: WHO STOLE OUR AIRHORNS. I COUNTED AND ONE IS MISSING D:

Adrian: Why are you counting our airhorns?

Winter: Do I want to know why you have multiple airhorns?

Ray: nope

Penny: They could be wanting to make a loud noise, that is what airhorns do. The more airhorns they have, the louder they can make noise.

Luke: Why is there a window broken in my room?

Mira: …………………. Did you not notice when we ran outside?

Feral Energy: I had the adventure of a lifetime, but seriously, don’t ask questions, and please go get someone to fix it. Thanks.

Ray: it was Kyra

Feral Energy: LISTEN UP HERE RAY I JUST SAID THAT

Ray: Well, I said it too, get over it.


	7. 6

I hear my scroll start dinging loudly in what seems like the middle of the night. In reality, it is only 5am. The one night I can get decent sleep, someone has come to wake me up. Just great, whoever did this is getting a talking to. 

But then I realize it just isn’t my scroll going off, it’s everyone’s scroll. I sit up and grab my scroll and whisper, “Who in the bloody hell is doing this.”

I look down at my phone and see it is from Clover. That man, he is going to get a talking to, then I read the message.

Clover: The General wants us in his room, NOW. 

I climb down from my bunk and grab Crystal Thorn, even though I’m still in my pajamas. I turn around to my team, “As much as I would love to sleep, I actually think this is important. Let’s go.”

Flame, Sandra, and Luke all follow behind me as we head to the General’s office. I see Caiden following their team. I run over to Caiden, “Do you know what is going on?”

Caiden shakes their head. “I got no clue, though whatever it is, it better be good.”

When we all arrive at Ironwood’s office, I say what is on all of our minds, “What in the world is going on? I could be in my room getting a good night’s sleep for once but something just had to happen!”

Clover sighs. “You’ll want to hear this one.”

Ironwood steps forward. “I apologize for calling you here so early in the morning, but I decided this matter could not wait.”

I cross my arms. “Go on.”

Ironwood sighs and brings up an image. “Murders in Mantle. But not like the murders we have been seeing. Those murders have been well plotted out so the killer is not seen. In this case, the killer clearly wants to be seen, he almost looks like he is looking for something.”

Ironwood pulls up a picture of a guy, doesn’t look too old, wait, that kind of looks like Luke. I turn to Luke, whose face looks like it has gone white. I walk over and start to shake Luke.

“Luke, mate, are you okay?” I say.

Luke is just frozen. Sighing, I pull Luke into a hug. “What is it?”

Luke walks over to the picture. “That is my brother.”

I think a collective gasp went around the room before Luke continues, “He isn’t a good guy, he actually tried to murder me when I was first learning how to fight. He must have somehow figured out I was going to Atlas. Is he hunting me? How did he even get here?”

Ironwood’s face softens a little as he puts a hand on Luke’s shoulder. “You have nothing to worry about, you have Atlas military protecting you.”

Under his breath, Luke mutters, “I just want payback.”

Ironwood, well everyone, heard this. Ironwood speaks again, “Would you then like to be the head of hunting him down and putting him in custody?”

Luke looks at Ironwood and nods slowly. “I would be willing to do that. Could Maddy and Mira work along with me?”

Ironwood nods. “Of course, you will be excused from working on the Amity Project to work on this case. That concludes everything I needed. Please meet in the meeting room at 9am for a briefing.”

Well it’s about 5:30 now so that’s about three and a half hours? I can’t do math. I nod and turn around, I turn the hallway to the elevator. I go to the elevator and click a few buttons to go up a few more floors where I know there is a balcony. I turn a few corners and push the door to enter the balcony. I pull myself up onto the railing and sit on it, my legs dangling off the edge and I look up at the stars.

Even with the light, you can see the stars from up here. I’ve always liked the stars when you look up at the sky, time just seems to stop. It’s like a calming sensation that comes over me, as I stare up at them. They shine brightly, and the longer I stare, the more stars I can see.

“I never pegged you to be the type who would look up at the stars,” Clover says from behind me.

I turn around and face Clover. “I never pegged you as the type who would wake me up at 5am in the morning.”

Clover sighs. “So it’s all my fault even if I was told to do it?”

I laugh and look back up. “Of course it’s all your fault. Did you need anything?”

I hear footsteps walk up behind me. “Not really, I saw you didn’t go back to the dorms, so I figured I’d come up and check on you.”

I shrug, “No need. I’m fine. I wouldn’t be able to fall asleep again. Tell me if I’m wrong, but it sounds like someone cares about me.”  
I can hear Clover laugh a bit from behind me. “With someone as reckless as you are, I think you need a figure like me in your life.”

I turn around and raise an eyebrow at Clover. “What type of figure would that be?”

“Someone to keep you on the ground,” he says back.

I roll my eyes. “I do perfectly fine.”

“Did you have any siblings?” Clover asks.

I frown at the question. “Yeah, one. He is a few years younger than me.”

“So I take it you are the oldest then?” He asks.

I nod. “Yup, I’m the oldest out of my cousins as well. Well, the cousins that I know well and used to see often.”

“Then my point still stands, you seriously need someone to keep you grounded, you just even said it yourself,” he says.

I swing my legs back over the edge and look at Clover. “You keep telling yourself that, Clover. Also if you want to play this game, why don’t you tell me what is going on between you and Qrow. Oh, wait, don’t respond to that just yet, take a while to think about it, because I want a real good answer.”

With that, I exited the balcony and went back to my dorm, where everyone was back asleep. I really don’t know how, if I wake up, I’m staying up for the whole day. 

I quietly open a drawer and grab my outfit and slip back out and head to the bathrooms to change. As much as I can change in the dark, I probably would trip and wake everybody up. Which makes me the bad guy instead of Clover.

On the thought of Clover, him and Qrow seem to be getting close. I just kind of went off on a whim when I asked him about his relationship with Qrow. He says I need someone to stay grounded, and I say he needs someone to get him to have some excitement! Which includes being a wingman if possible.

I walk out of the bathroom and look down over the railing. I crawl over the railing and jump off it to the floor. Who has time for stairs, not me. 

I see more students walking around, and the sun is rising, it looks like the morning has finally come. It seemed to be taking long enough. 

I see Caiden once again emerge from their dorm, I wave over at Caiden and they wave back. Caiden comes running over to me. “Did you not go back to bed, Kyra?”

I shake my head. “I wouldn’t have been able to fall back asleep, and about the time I could have, it would’ve been time to wake up again. Oh by the way, are we going... uh, café hunting or whatever you called it today?”

Caiden nods. “Yes! After our missions. I don’t care if we get back at three in the morning.”

I give Caiden a thumbs up, “I’m going to go find Clover, I’ll meet you in the meeting room.”

I run around the academy till I bump into Clover. I wave over at him and he waves back. I walk over to him. “What is this whole thing about today in the meeting room?”

Clover laughs. “Of course you would be the one to ask this. We are assigning missions to everyone.”

I nod. “To get dust to the launch site?”

It’s now Clovers turn to nod. “Yes, we have to protect the dust.”

I yawn. “That sounds extremely boring.”

Clover shrugs. “I just bring a deck of cards on missions like that.”

“Cards, do you understand how much I suck at cards?”

Clover laughs. “It keeps the time passing, if you go to the rec room, I’m sure you know where that is considering you blew up half of it, there should be a deck of cards you can take with you. Practice a while, then tomorrow I’ll put all of us on the same mission and we will see who is the best.”

I laugh. “It’s definitely not me, didn’t you just hear me? I’m absolute trash at cards!” 

Clover shrugs. “Then get better.”

I turn around to go to the rec room. “Fine, I’ll do just that. Put Caiden and Flame in my group, it’ll make my life so much simpler. Thanks, Clover, you’re the best.”

Without letting him respond I check my scroll for the time, 8am. I got some time. As I approach the rec room, I see yellow hazard tape around it. I duck under the tape and walk over to where I think I previously saw cards. I see the deck of cards and grab them, putting them in my pocket. I slip back out just as a construction worker comes up, “Hey, you aren’t supposed to be in there!”

I look the construction worker dead in the eyes. “Listen here, I blew the kitchen up. If I was any normal person I would be in jail. So apparently I’m important enough to not be in jail. I think if I’m that important I can go in there.”

I turn around, but not before I wink at the worker and start to walk towards the cafeteria. I can’t go on a mission without my trusty hot chocolate.

I enter the kitchen and get my hot chocolate. Now it’s time to head to the meeting room so maybe I’m not almost late for once. 

As I enter the meeting room, I see some people have already showed up. Caiden turns around and sees me and waves. I go and sit by Caiden and Flame.

“You aren’t late for once!” Caiden exclaims.

I check my scroll. “I could actually have walked here, I even have five minutes to spare.”

“Isn’t it nice being on time?” Flame adds in before looking forward.

I roll my eyes. “I brought some cards for us to play!”

Caiden looks at me, “You play cards?”

Flame speaks right after her. “How do you know we will get placed on a team?”

“I do now. Clover challenged me to a game of cards tomorrow so I must practice! Second, I have much power in this world.”

Caiden snorts at my comment and we all look forward as Clover walks up. We all know my habit of dozing off during this type of stuff.

“Kyra, Caiden, and Flame, you guys are on Transport 187, which leaves in 5 minutes,” Clover looks over in my direction looking like he is trying not to laugh. 

I stand up and walk up the stairs till I get Clover and look him straight in the eyes. “I will get you back for this.”

I turn around and run out of the room, Caiden and Flame a bit ahead of me. We all jump onto the transport with seconds to spare. I sit down on the seat and lean back.

When we fly down to Mantle and hop onto our transport I pull out the deck of cards and hand out cards to everyone. I then turn to the driver. “How long will this take?”

“A few hours to get there, and a few hours back,” he responds.

This is going to be a long drive. 

——————————————————-

Why is my brother here?

I’m glad the General assigned me to work on this case, but what could he want?

I feel a tap on my shoulder. “Seriously, Luke, everything will be fine.”

I turn around and face Maddy. “How do you know that?”

“Because as a team we are stronger than he will ever be, and as much as I hate to say it, we have the military on our side, he’s clearly not trying to stay hidden,” Maddy says.

“We need to stop him from committing any other murders,” Mira says as she pulls up a chair to our table, “Let’s look at the bright side, we don’t have to go on those really long supply runs.”

“But people are dying,” I hiss out through gritted teeth.

“And that’s what we are here to stop, Luke. Keep a clear head,” Mira says.

“Where are we wanting to start?” Maddy says.

Mira pulls up her scroll and projects a hologram of the video that recorded the murder. “We should start here, go down to where the murder took place. Inspect the area.”

“He wouldn’t want to be known unless it was for a reason, he has to leave something behind,” I say.

“No one knows him better than you do, let’s go,” Maddy says as she stands up, “We can catch the next ship down to Mantle if we hurry.”

————————————

“Seriously, someone! Turn up the damn heater!” I yell out as I zip another coat on.

“Seriously Ray, it's all the way up, calm down,” Adrian says, sighing as he glances over at me.

Why did Clover assign us to the middle of nowhere in a tundra? He could have picked any other team, ANY OTHER TEAM. There are three dust cargo trucks headed out today, one has Kyra and the crew in it, and the other has Qrow, Clover, Ruby, and Penny.

“If there’s Grimm, you’re on your own,” I say back to Adrian.

“Why did you come to Atlas anyways?” Adrian asks, “Everyone knows it is cold.”

I slam my fist against the dash. “I lost a damn bet! A bet! My friends decided to make a bet with me and I lost!”

Adrian looks taken back, “You are competitive.”

I nod. “I am very competitive.”

Adrian nods then looks outside the window, a small smirk on his face. “Well how about I make you a bet. If we encounter Grimm, we’ll see who can kill the most. Loser has to piss off Ironwood.”

I grin. “You got yourself a deal. Don’t expect to win though.”

Adrian looks back, “Don’t get so cocky now.”

————————————

Flame claps her hands together. “I win again.”

I groan and throw my cards against the seat, “Why? How am I going to beat Clover! That man has infinite luck. For me it’s the luck of the draw! I either lose by a longshot or win by a longshot!”

Caiden laughs and sets their cards down. “Trust me, you have no chance.”

I cross my arms. “You are so supportive. I think I need to go find a new support pillar.”

“Hey, eyes ahead,” Flame says as the truck comes to a rolling stop.

I look out the window and see a nevermore looking down at us from a cliff in the distance. I climb over Caiden and Flame and open the door and hop out, shutting it behind me.

Flame rolls down the window and sticks her head out. “What are you doing?”

I turn to flame as I pull out Crystal Thorn, “Setting off to go fight a nevermore.”

Caiden screams from inside the truck, “ALL BY YOURSELF?”

I shrug. “Yeah, I don’t see the problem.”

Caiden pushes Flame out of the way and squints at me, “A team of huntsmen can barely take a nevermore down.”

I shrug. “And that's the fun in the job.”

The nevermore starts to swoop down towards us when Caiden turns back and faces Flame, “What did she mean by that?”

Flame shrugs. “I don’t know, but by the looks of it, she’s about to do something crazy.”

The nevermore swoops down towards me and I run to the side just as it hits the ground where I once was, I dig my scythe into the nevermore’s side as I climb up on top of it. I’ll take a nice ride till they get me down, or I get bored and try to kill it myself.

Through my earpiece I hear Caiden scream, “GET DOWN KYRA.”

All of us out on dust duty today are using the same coms. I smile and turn my coms on, “I don’t think I can get down.”

Flame tunes in next, “You jump from airships, and from your dorm window, you can jump off.”

I snicker, “Where is the fun in that?”

The nevermore takes a steep dive up and I hold onto the handle of my scythe tightly that is buried deep into the nevermores back.

I hear Clover’s voice next, “What is going on? “

Ray’s voice comes next, “Look out your window.”

A moment passes, where I assume Clover is heading to look out a window when he says, “Nevermore, well, let's get geared up.”

Caiden speaks next, “You don’t get it! Kyra is riding the nevermore!”

I tap in, “Finally someone says it. Come and get-” The nevermore takes a dive down towards Caiden and I scream loudly as I hold on for dear life. Caiden runs out of the way and the nevermore goes back up just before it hits our truck, “me!”

I hear Clover sigh through the coms before saying, “Kyra we are having a serious talk when we get back. Everyone, get away from the trucks!”

Qrow speaks next, “Someone call Maria, she’s ridden a nevermore before. Maybe she can give some tips to Kyra about how to not die.”

Next thing I know Maria is somehow in the coms, “What did you kids get yourselves into this time?”

“Kyra-” Caiden starts but throws her Tron disk at the nevermore, hitting it in the side about where my scythe mark is, the nevermore swoops up again, “-is riding a nevermore!”

I hear Maria laugh through the comms. “Keep it up kid! Just don’t fall.”

I climb to the head of the nevermore and look down to see that we are swooping towards Clover and Qrow. Clover speaks, “That is some real helpful advice Maria!”

Clover throws his line as it wraps around the head on the nevermore and Qrow starts attacking from the side. I stand up and grab my scythe and start attacking it from the top. I feel the nevermore shift and I dig my scythe back into it’s back as the nevermore takes off again, though it’s flight is weaker than it was before.

The nevermore seems to be rotating between groups, it seems to be Adrian and Ray’s turn. Some throwing knives come from Adrian's arms and he launches them at the bird I am currently riding. He pulls his arms back, and the wires connected to the knives unsteady the nevermore, allowing another person to go for a strike while it was struggling.

I wave at them as I see the driver throw something out the window to Ray, who grabs a dust cartridge and puts it into what looks like a pistol. 

The nevermore swoops down at them and I hold on tightly, I hear a bang and I feel the nevermore jolt as the dust cartridge hits it. Just as it hits the ground Ray throws a dust cartridge up to me. I look down at it and see a fire symbol as the nevermore screeches.

The nevermore swoops back up into the air.

“Take the shot, Kyra,” Ray says through the coms. I carefully load the dust into my gun and line up my shot for the neck, I see where she is going with this, we are going to burn it. I pull the trigger and my scythe cuts into the nevermores back and a fire starts at the neck of the nevermore. 

The nevermore swoops down and lands onto the snow. All three teams run over to the nevermore as it’s feathers go up in flames. I jump off the nevermore and brush myself off before I grab Crystal Thorn and start shooting at the nevermore.

Qrow runs over to the neck of the nevermore, Harbinger in its scythe form as he swings his scythe up, and cuts through the bottom part of his deck, successfully killing it.

The nevermore shimmers out of existence and I smile. “See! I knew you could get me down.”

Caiden runs up to me, “Never do that again.”

I roll my eyes and shrug, “I guess that was a bit crazy.”

Ray walk over, “I’ve only heard of one other person in my lifetime riding a nevermore, and that’s this crazy woman Maria. But you both got feral energy.”

I turn to Ray. “Are you saying I have feral energy?”

She grins. “Takes one to know one.”

I hear footsteps behind me and I turn to face Clover. “Don’t worry, you have plenty of feral energy. Let's get back on the road and get back before any more incidents happen.”

We all nod as we climb back into our respective trucks.

\-------------------------------------

We arrive on the site that the murder happened. We show our IDs to the police stationed here and we are allowed inside the crime scene.

Everything here seems too familiar even though I have never been here before, I’ve rarely been down in Mantle.

“Let’s split up, I’ll go over here,” I point in front of me. 

I put gloves on as I start to look into the cracks and the crevices that are in the alleyway. I move rubble out of the way and don’t find anything.

“Did anyone find anything?” I yell behind me.

“Here! I found something!” Mira yells.

We all run over to Mira and look down to what looks like a ring. The ring looks like an expensive ring, the centerpiece is diamond shaped, and well, in the diamond shape is a diamond. If my brother left this, there is no way he would be able to afford this.

“Let’s head back and see if there has been any armed robberies recently,” I say as Mira hands the ring to me. 

I will get to the bottom of this case.

\-------------------------------------------------------

It seemed to dawn on me a bit late. We dropped the dust off and are finally on our way back, “Hey! I won our bet!”

Adrian looks over in my direction and frowns, “You did not win.”

“I did so! Kyra shot the nevermore with fire, which was my idea, which brought it down so we all could kill it!” I say back as I cross my arms.

“I don’t think that counts, Ray,” Adrian says back, adjusting his metal arms and avoiding eye contact.

“It so does! You just don’t want to piss off Ironwood!” I exclaim back.

“I think Kyra already pisses off Ironwood enough, he doesn’t need another reason to be pissed off at us,” Adrian says and grimaces, rolling his eyes.

“Yeah, she’s lucky she didn’t die,” I say, “but you are still going to piss off Ironwood.”

Adrian just sighs and pulls out his scroll, giving a dismissive wave and effectively ignoring me. Rude. I’ll just do it for him then.

Luke: We got a lead on our case.

Mira: We don’t know that yet

Feral Energy: That’s good! We all are alive over here.

Flame: Luckily.

Ray: AND I won a bet!

Ray: But seriously Clover, these missions are cold.

Clover: Do you need me to get you more coats, well, get someone else to get you coats.

Ray: As a matter of fact, yes I do.

Clover: On it. 

Clover changed Ray’s nickname to Needs A Coat

Needs A Coat: I accept this

Clover: Kyra you ready for our game tomorrow?

Caiden: She’s so not ready

Feral Energy: DONT BLOW MY COVER

Caiden: I already did

Clover: Is Kyra going to lose for once?

Feral Energy: For your information, I have lost before

Flame: She did lose at cards a sad amount today.

Feral Energy: SEE?!!! But I refuse to lose to you.

Clover: Keep telling yourself that.

Caiden: HEY WE ARE ALMOST BACK FINALLY. KYRA AND FLAME meet me in the lobby.

Flame: We are literally right next to you.

Caiden: Doesn’t seem like it

Qrow: Did they just fly out the window or something?

Needs A Coat: Knowing Kyra, probably


	8. 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a longer chapter than I usually write. Full of chaos, I love it.

I stretch my arms as I step off the transport. I look over to all of the other teams stepping out of their transports when Clover runs over to me. 

“You and I need to have a serious talk later.”

I raise my eyebrow at Clover. “About you and Qrow?”

Clover frowns. “No, about your behavior.”

I roll my eyes at Clover and cross my arms. “I did what needed to be done, and it worked.”

Clover sighs. “You almost killed yourself- again. One of these days it’s going to actually happen you know.”

I look down to the pavement and kick a rock. As it goes skidding across the cement, I add, “Would it really matter?”

I feel a hand land on my shoulder and I look up at Clover as he says, “People care about you, just look around you. No one can stop you, but please be more careful.”

I nod as I hear Caiden’s voice behind me. “Let’s go, Kyra!”

I wave to Clover. “We’ll continue this later.” 

I run towards Caiden and Flame.

“We are going to go stop by my house first, see if my mom has any recommendations,” Caiden says as we start to walk down the streets of Mantle.

“This looks like the prime place for crimes to happen,” I comment as I really take in Mantle. I’ve been down here before, but I’ve never really taken time to look around. In the background, I hear Ironwood talking about some curfew thing on the screen. 

I turn to Caiden, “How long of a walk is it from here? My ‘wanting to do something reckless’ meter is going up by the second.”

Caiden sighs. “You are so going to get us arrested, aren’t you.”

I cough loudly and look behind us and look forward. “I’ll try?”

Flame snorts. “I don't think I can believe that.”

Caiden stops and knocks on the door to what I would presume to be their house. Their mom comes and opens the door, looking shocked, “Caiden?”

Caiden waves as we walk inside. “Hey, mom.”

She pulls Caiden into a hug as Flame and I move to sit down. Caiden and their mom sits down as well. 

“So where have your adventures taken you?” 

She glances over to me, “I never thought I’d see most of you again.”

I put my hands up in the air. “What did I do?”

She frowns at me and pulls up a news channel on T.V. The video is well, me fighting Winter. Caiden’s mom frowns and looks over to me, “What do I see here? You fighting the one and only Winter Schnee, and you are not in jail,” she turns to Caiden, “and you joined in.”

It’s Caiden’s turn to throw her arms up. “Mom you raised me to be a good kid I promise! I'm just trying to be a good older sibling figure!”

I snort. “I could have done it by myself. Anyway, she started it.”

Caiden sighs. “You should see this girl, mom! She rode a nevermore earlier today, clotheslined the General, and blew up a kitchen.”

Caiden’s mom looks at me. “You, are the most reckless person I have met. If you were my child I would lock you in your room.”

I cross my arms. “It was fun.”

Caiden’s mom stares me down. “Fun does not mean safe. Also, what are you doing that you aren’t arrested yet? You should be in jail.”

“We work with the military now! Though if it wasn’t for Kyra, I wouldn’t be helping, none of us would. It’s more like a placement thing, we help Ironwood with some plans.”

“You're working with the General? Oh, how have you grown up, I’m so proud of you!” She gets up and gives Caiden another hug, then walks over to me and gives me a hug as well, “Thank you for being able to help Caiden.”

I smile and wave her off. “It’s nothing, don’t worry about it!”

She smiles and sits down. “But please tell me, what is Ironwood doing with Mantle, why won’t he just tell us.”

Flame sighs and speaks for the first time. “That is confidential information.”

She nods. “As much as I want to trust him, I’m on the fence. I trust that you will leave, so… Caiden if you ever get wind that he's a bad guy you are to leave right away you hear me!"

Caiden laughs. “But mom, how can I stop him if he is bad if I'm NOT on the inside???"

I start laughing as well. “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of Caiden for you if anything bad happens.”

She smiles again and hands me her scroll, I pull out my own to add her number as she talks, “If you ever need anything, any of you, feel free to let me know. I still have some fight left in me.”

I hand her the scroll back. “Thank you so much-”

I get cut off by Caiden. “Anyways, mom, what we came here for, we were wondering if you knew any good cafés we could go stop at around here?”

She smiles and hands us the address of a nearby café. We wave her goodbye and start to head to the café.

———————————

When we get back we have the security teams run a scan to see if there had been any armed robberies recently, and there had been, but only one report out of all of them reported a missing ring. But surprisingly it wasn’t from a shop. It was someone’s wife, my brother… murdered her… and that was her ring.

I sigh as I turn the ring in my hands, that woman lost her life for some game my brother was playing. He wanted something, knowing him, everything he left has a double meaning, everything. What does he mean by this? This ring wasn’t left there for no reason, he isn’t that careless.

Before we focus on if this has a double meaning—which I assume it does—let’s focus on where he is most likely going next. “Can you run a scan of all the jewelry stores in Atlas and Mantle?”

————————

Adrian and I walk into Adrian’s dorm room. I sit down on the bed of one of his teammates and lean back and yawn. “Today was an eventful day.”

Adrian nods and as he starts to sit down in the chair. 

“Nothing crazy better-” He gets cut off by a loud screech as he sits down into the chair. Adrian’s hand flies up as he punches the wall, leaving a dent. I burst out laughing. 

“Looks like I don’t have to piss off Ironwood for you! You did it all by yourself!”

Adrian scowls and stands up and kicks the airhorn out from under the chair, gets up and stomps out of the room while grumbling something about killing Kyra.

———————

We walk out of the café when I look at the time, we are cutting it close being out this late, curfew is only in around thirty minutes.

Caiden looks to me, then looks at the time. “I think we should head to the airship landing.”

Flame nods and starts to follow Caiden as I look around. Caiden turns around. “Kyra, seriously, we need to get going.”

I look back at Caiden. “What’s the fun in that?”

Caiden groans as they grab my hand and tug on it. “We are going, I don’t care if you want to have fun, I’m not just leaving you down here.”

I nod as I follow them, formulating a plan. As we approach the airship landing, I turn around and start to run as I tap Caiden on the shoulder. 

“Tag, you’re it.” I hear Caiden scream my name and start to run after me.

I turn through alleyways as I maneuver through the city. When finally I hear the clocks ring, telling everyone that they are supposed to be indoors. Finally, what I was waiting for. I’m not going to be secretive about it either. 

I start to walk down the middle of the street in Mantle, as I purposefully stumble and fall. I see Caiden run up and grab me as they shake me. “What are you doing?”

I shrug when all of a sudden we both fall to the ground, the gravity bolas around us. I look to Caiden. “Well fuck.”

The military people come over to us and take our weapons away as they adjust the gravity bolas. We get loaded onto a prisoner transport.

“Geez, I never thought we’d be going to jail, but this is jail, jail.” I say to Caiden as I relax on the transport that is headed up to Atlas.

Caiden sighs. “What did you think was going to happen?”

I shrug. “I just wanted to make some people’s jobs a bit harder.”

Caiden groans. “And now we are both in handcuffs and on our way to jail! I’m surprised you aren’t already in jail, but that is beside the point!”

When we get to the jail, the Atlas guards get us out of the transport and put Caiden and I in a cell together. I go and lay on the bed, my arm draped over my eyes. 

“I might as well get some sleep while we wait.”

Caiden sighs and sits on the other bed. “They’ll probably just leave us in here to teach us a lesson.”

I groan. “Ironwood needs us, he wouldn’t just leave us here, if he did I’m having a prison break.”

Caiden sighs. “Well, don’t let them hear that.”

———————————

I follow Adrian out of the room, but ultimately lose him when I hear the door opening to Team KLFS dorm room, I run over and see Flame.

“Hey! Flame!” I say as I approach her.

Flame turns around and faces me. “Hey, Ray, do you need anything?”

I shrug and look around. “Weren’t you with Caiden and Kyra? Where did they go?”

Flame shrugs. “Not sure, they ran off, but if I had to guess, still down in Mantle, or in jail.”

“Damn, I wanted to thank Kyra for getting Adrian,” I say without any other explanation. Flame raises an eyebrow. “Thanks!”

Before she can ask what I mean, I turn around and head towards. the General’s office to figure out their whereabouts. That’s when I run into Qrow and Clover.

I wave at them. “Do you guys happen to know where Caiden and Kyra are?”

Clover laughs. “Seems like everyone is looking for them, that’s what Qrow and I were doing.”

I nod. “Flame said they ran off down in Mantle, so they are either in Mantle or in jail.”

Clover sighs,pulls out his scroll, and clicks on a few things. 

“Well, there were two arrests a while ago, I assume that would be them. As much as I would like to keep Kyra in there to teach her a lesson, and for rights to tease her about being put in jail, Ironwood needs to speak with Kyra.”

Clover seems to send someone a message as he turns around and starts walking the other way. “Are you coming or what?”

———————————

I wake up to hear the door opening to our cell. I sit up to see Clover, who has a very disapproving face. “Get up, let’s go. We’ll talk on the way back to the academy.”

I look at Caiden and stick out my tongue at them. “See, I told you someone would come to our rescue.”

Caiden doesn’t respond and keeps walking, till we all load back up into the transport and get our weapons back. 

Clover speaks first, “What did you do this time?”

I shrug my shoulders casually. “Just was in Mantle after curfew.”

Clover sighs. “There are rules down there for a purpose, please respect them when you are down there. Seriously, you were supposed to have a meeting with the General thirty minutes ago.”

Ray speaks up next, “Everyone was looking for you two?”

Caiden rolls their eyes. “I’m sure that’s the case, because we are,” they do air quotes, “so important.”

I laugh and nudge Caiden in the side. “I count this as a jailbreak.”

“Then you got pretty low standards,” Qrow mutters under his breath, but loud enough for everyone to hear.

“There’s a story there and I really want to hear it,” Ray pipes up.

“No.”

“Aw.”

“What about if I asked you, Qrow?” I say.

Qrow seems to think about it a second, “Maybe, but only if you do it first. You have to learn how to do a proper jailbreak somehow.”

“So if I break out of jail, will you tell me?” Ray asks.

“You’d have to get thrown in jail first, and I don’t think you have that in you.”

“That’s fair.”

I stand up.

“Don’t stand up in a moving vehicle, Kyra!” Clover and Caiden says at the same time. I meekly sit down in the seat.

When we return to Atlas Academy, Qrow, Clover, and I all head to Ironwood’s office. I ask, “What does he need?”

“If I had to guess, he has a bone to pick with you and I,” Qrow says as we push the door to his office open.

We walk in and Clover goes up to stand by Ironwood as Qrow and I stand down below awkwardly, “What is this about?” I ask.

Ironwood sighs and pulls up a screen and starts to play a video. Oh. That makes sense. I really should’ve had Caiden wipe the cameras, but sometimes part of the fun is the person who you did it too being pissed off at you.

I rub the back of my neck. “Uh, about that…”

Ironwood sighs. “There is no excuse you two could have for this.”

Before I can speak, Qrow speaks, “It was worth it.”

I smirk. “I agree. I would do it again.”

“Seriously guys, we have more important stuff to focus on than this… prank war. I’m not even involved in it. Please, this is mostly for you Kyra, be more serious.”

I tap my foot on the ground and pretend to be in though, “Sure thing, Irondaddy.”

Ironwood and Qrow’s faces turn to shock as Qrow and I start to laugh. 

Ironwood just sighs. “This is what I’m talking about. Go burn off all this excitement tomorrow. I’m giving you the day off, it also might be the last relaxing night since election night is tomorrow.”

We all nod and I turn around and open the door, my hand is on the handle when I hear Ironwood’s voice from behind me, “Kyra, wait.”

I pause and look behind me. “Yes?”

“Never call me that again, understand me?”

I make my voice super high and squeaky, “Yessir.”

I walk out and see Clover frowning. “You seriously didn’t have to mock me.”

I shrug. “I wasn’t just mocking you, silly. I was mocking the military as a whole.”

I pull out my scroll and send a message in the groupchat.

Feral Energy: Day off tomorrow, everyone meet me in the common area tomorrow at 12pm sharp.

Ione: Why so late?

Feral Energy: Because I want sleep.

I turn off my scroll as I climb up into the bunk bed and lay down. Tomorrow here we come.

I hear my alarm go off in the morning. I rub my eyes and shut off my alarm to see it is 11:30, listen, I don’t need that much time to get ready. I jump down from the top bunk instead of using the ladder. I grab my clothes and change quickly as I grab my Cards Against Humanity deck and run for the cafeteria. I grab my flask and quickly make some hot chocolate. Then I sprint to the commons area and sit down with the people that are waiting here.

Soon enough, everyone shows up and sits down when Qrow asks, “So what did you call us here for?”

I pull out my Cards Against Humanity deck and slam it against the table, “Some Cards Against Humanity to start our day off! Also if you don’t have plans already, you are going clubbing with me tonight.”

Yang and Blake look at each other. “We were already going to go clubbing.”

I smile. “Great! Though we will need some fake IDs.”

Caiden looks over at me. “I got you.”

Clover sighs. “I’m right here! You guys are not getting fake IDs to get into a club!”

“Get them real IDs,” Qrow says.

“I suddenly understand where the kids get it from. Kyra, that’s still a no.”

I give Clover a sad face. “I’m doing it anyways, try to stop me.”

Clover sighs. “Let’s just get this game going.”

I lay the first black card down, which reads ‘Coping with death? Try _____”

Everyone lays their cards on the table, but ultimately I pick, ‘Locked up in Ironwoods Office.’

Sandra gets a point as she smiles triumphantly when Cadmium groans, “Not again…”

The next black card we pull reads, ‘Fear is _____’

I lay my card down which reads, ‘bootlickers.’

I look down at all the white cards that were laid down when my eyes stop on one card, I exclaims, “WHO PUT KYRA’S FERAL ENERGY CARD DOWN?”

Caiden starts to laugh. “Let's find out,” Caiden picks up the card and holds it up as Ray starts laughing and takes her card back. I give a playful pointed look to Ray before I start dying of laughter again.

“Fuck, good job Flame, you beat me,” Clover says as I congratulate her and stand up and stretch.   
I gather up all my cards and say to everyone, “Meet me at the front doors at 7pm, we are heading out then.”

I start to walk down the halls when Qrow runs up behind me. “Listen, I don’t know where you found that deck or where some of those extra cards came from, but whatever you do do not ever let it get back to Taiyang Xiao Long. I am literally begging you.”

I start laughing. “What traumatizing experience did you have with this Cards Against Humanity deck?”

Qrow sighs. “If you want to keep it, go ahead, but PLEASE never take it to Patch or let my nieces get their hands on it because it will get back to him.”

I continue to laugh as I nod, “You got it. I wouldn’t give this deck up for anything. I think you noticed some of the cards I’ve added.”

“We definitely never had a card with your feral energy.” Now it’s Qrow’s turn to laugh. “I will admit it was fun, now I have planned to go eat some lunch with Clover, even though it is the middle of the afternoon.” 

Qrow starts walking away in the opposite direction.

I turn around and yell at him. “Go get it Qrow!”

I hear Qrow groan as I run off, and promptly run into Caiden. 

“Oh, hey!” I say.

Caiden pulls me into a dorm room and shuts the door. “Listen, I have a genius idea.”

I nod for Caiden to go on. “We are going to make Ironwood punch himself.”

My eyes light up. “REALLY? HOW, PLEASE TELL??”

Caiden laughs. “You are going to distract him, while I’ll be carrying some hot coffee, and I will purposely run into him, effectively touching the metal and sending the command. But don’t laugh, look panicked, then after we will come into the dorm room and laugh.”

I nod. “Let’s go get you some coffee.”

We walk to the cafeteria and Caiden makes themself some coffee when I put on my best acting composure. 

“Hey,” I say, “I got some stuff to discuss with Ironwood, I’m going off to find him alright?”

Caiden nods as I walk down the halls till I run into Ironwood. “Hey! Ironwood! I have something to tell you!”

Ironwood stops and looks at me. “What is it?”

I look over his shoulder as I see Caiden walking up behind, looking down at their scroll. 

“I just wanted to tell you that… I’m happy to be helping you even if I’m a pain in the ass sometimes!”

Just as I finish the sentence, Caiden crashes into Ironwood and they instantly start apologizing. Not even a moment after he starts to punch himself and Caiden and I pretend to freak out.

“Ironwood? Are you okay?” Caiden asks as their eyes are wide open.

“What is going on?” I ask frantically as I look around. This is taking a lot of effort not to laugh.

After ten punches to the face Ironwood growls, “What happened to my arm? You two are dismissed.”

Caiden walks up to Ironwood. “Are you sure? Do you need help? I’m so sorry I ran into you!”

Ironwood nods and Caiden and I run to a dorm room and burst out laughing when the door shuts. 

“That was hilarious!”

I nod my head, “That was genius!”

I give Caiden a high-five when Flame walks in, “What is all the commotion?”

I put my hand on my hip. “Promise not to tell anyone?”

Flame nods and I continue, “We made Ironwood punch himself.”

Flame smiles and starts to laugh as well. “Which one of you came up with that plan?”

I point to Caiden. “Caiden did! I know, surprising."

Flame rolls her eyes. “I wish I could have been there to see it.”

I nod. “We’ll get the video somehow. Actually, Caiden, can you get the video—and erase it off the security cameras when you go and get the fake IDs?”

Caiden nods. “You got it, and on that note, I am going to head out, I want to have plenty of time.”

Caiden exits the room and it’s just Flame and I. I turn to Flame, “I think that was the best prank yet. We’re racking up double points.”

Flame laughs quietly. “I wonder if Penny is actually going to blow a hole in the wall.”

I shrug. “I’ll give her a little nudge to do it if she doesn’t do it soon, Ms. Schnee is going to be a little mad at me.”

Flame sits on her bed. “Have you ever thought of working for someone?”

I pause and think for a moment. “No, not really, and I think we all can see why. I like to make my own rules.”

Flame nods. “I personally think you would be a great asset to some teams, you know.”

I smile. “Thank you! As much as I hate to admit it, it’s nice actually having people around, going out for drinks after missions, and overall just having friends.”

Flame nods. “It really has been fun. Would you ever consider joining a team of people permanently after this whole ordeal is over with Atlas?”

I shrug. “I guess it really depends on the people you know?”

Flame nods. “That makes perfect sense, you should keep the idea open in your mind.”

I nod my head and check the time as I get up. “Sorry to cut this short, but I need to go figure out a way to sneak my weapon into that nightclub.”

Flame laughs and nods. “Of course you would be the one to sneak a weapon into a nightclub.”

I turn the doorknob and step out. “You always have to be prepared for anything.”

\---------------------------

“Seriously, Luke, take a break. Lighten up a bit, we are going to the club tonight,” Maddy says as she approaches me as I am digging through every jewelry shop in Atlas and Mantle.

“I just don’t want more innocent people to die, Maddy,” I groan as I turn around to face her.

Mira approaches behind Maddy. “Trust me, everything will be okay, come back at it tomorrow with a clearmind. Plus, I’m sure tonight won’t be a boring night since Kyra is coming along. That girl is just a charm for chaos and trouble. Mostly because she creates the trouble, but that's not really the point.”

I laugh. 

“You do got that one right. She does have to have luck on her side to get out of the many near-death situations she’s been in,” I sigh as I stand up. “Fine, alright, I’ll go with you.”

Maddy cheers and grabs my hand as she pulls me away. “Trust me, It’ll be worth it.”

I smile. “I’ll hold you to that.”

“Yessir,” Maddy says as she drags me into my dorm room and we see Flame sitting on her bed. “Oh, hey Flame.”

Flame waves back and turns her scroll off and puts it away. “Hey, I was actually just about to head out. I have some business to take care of.”

She hops down from her bed and walks out of the door, shutting the door behind her.

Mira looks at the door, “That sounded really ominous, like she was going to kidnap someone or something.”

\--------------------

I tap my foot impatiently as we all wait for Caiden at the entrance. I put my belts under my shirt to hold my weapon up, under my shirt on my back. Let’s just hope no one doesn’t bump into my hard enough to slice through my shirt, and probably stab someone. That would be fun.

Caiden comes running out waving the fake IDs in hand. “Sorry guys! I had to get changed!”

Caiden hands out the fake IDs and Clover pulls up his scroll. “Well, you aren’t entirely late, the transport is still about three minutes away. I would say you are right on time.”

Caiden nods and turns to me. “Are you excited?! ARE YOU?”

I roll my eyes. “I don’t think I would have invited you if I wasn’t, Caiden.”  
Caiden crosses her arms, “You are so dancing.”

Now I cross my arms. “We’ll see about that one.”

Caiden sighs as we walk to get onto the transport. “Are you not much of a dancer?”

I shrug. “I suck at it. I only know how to slow dance.”

Caiden frowns. “So why did you want to go to a nightclub.”

I smile. “Two words. Chaotic chaos.”

When we arrive at the club we all hop out of the transport as we get our IDs checked as we walk into the club, I look over to Caiden and whisper, “Good job, they worked.”

Caiden sighs, “Did you ever doubt me?”

I shake my head as I walk over to the bar and order myself a drink. I sit down at the bar and turn my seat to watch everyone dancing. Caiden must have wandered off to go dance. I feel someone sit next to me, I look over and see Clover.

I down my drink as I call the bartender over and order another one when Clover gives me a weird look. “I never knew you drank.”

I shrug. “I don’t very often, but when I do, I drink.”

I get another one and I start to drink it when Caiden comes over. “Damn Kyra, you kick them back hard.”

I shrug. “Why is everyone so surprised I’m drinking again?”

Caiden just points to their head, “You just don’t seem like the type of person... I guess? Listen, I'm coming back over here in five minutes.”

Caiden runs off and Clover says, “I will be surprised if she actually comes back over here in five minutes.”

I snort as I take another drink, “She thinks she is going to get me to dance, listen I came here to watch and observe the chaos… maybe get some ideas you know? Not to come create chaos. Don’t even, I know that sounds so not me.”

Clover laughs as he himself orders a drink. “Is this what you looked like relaxed?”

“Yup,” I say while popping the p, “though honestly, I probably will end up doing something stupid again anyways.”

Clover squints his eyes at me. “Again?”

I take another drink. “Yeah, you know, I always do stupid stuff.”

“Well I’m glad you’ll admit it, I was scared you didn’t realize what you were doing was stupid,” Clover says.

“PFFFFT, I always realize what I am doing is stupid, but that doesn’t stop me,” I say when I see Caiden coming through the crowd again. “Oh, the queen comes again.”

Caiden walks up. “Time to go!”

I groan and down my drink when Caiden says, “Kyra… you may want to slow down a bit..”

I shrug and say, “Listen, Caiden, I’m not going to dance.”

Caiden sighs and grabs me with their arms and I squirm in their grip when Caiden says, “Stop squirming, squirt, save those moves for the dance floor.”

I groan as I scream back to Clover. “GET OVER HERE AND COME DANCE IF I HAVE TOOOOOO. Don't you want to learn how to dance to impress your bird boyfriend?? I heard he's got some mad skills so you're gonna need to know how to keep up!”

Caiden’s other hand slaps over their mouth and starts laughing as she carries me to the dancefloor, stopping in her spot. I look over at Clover and give a crooked smile. Clover’s face is red, very red. It seems everyone in close range proximity is looking between Clover and I. 

Clover sighs and walks towards Caiden and I and bends down to my level. “Listen up here, Qrow and I are not dating.”

Caiden sets me down and I stand up, and so does Clover. “Lighten up, pfff, stop being so sibling like.”

Clover crosses his arms. “If anything you are being more sibling like because you just boldly assumed Qrow and I are in a relationship.”

I raise my eyebrow. “You two are so in a relationship, and if you aren’t,” I move my wrist up to pretend to check the watch I don’t have, “I give it about a week.”

I wink at Clover as he groans. “Anyways, I don’t want to get picked up again, in more ways than one, so I’m off to go dance. But you better dance too, TATA!!!”

I turn to Caiden as we walk to the dancefloor and start to dance near each other when Caiden says, “See? Isn’t it fun?”

I roll my eyes and keep dancing to the beat when Caiden pushes me away. “Now that you have the hang of it, go find some new people to talk too.”

I open my mouth to yell at Caiden for leaving me when I run into someone, I look up at them and he looks back down at me. I continue to dance as I wave, “Hey.”

The guy,who has hazel eyes, looks down at me. 

“Hey,” he grabs my hand and pulls me over to the bar and hands me a drink. I frown and shake my head.

“No, thank you,” I try to hand it back but he refuses to take it back.

He shakes his head. “It's on me, trust me.”

I smirk. “Then you drink it first.”

The man shakes his head and I frown. “Why not?”

The man seems to be struggling to come up with an answer. Some people... I hold up my fist and punch him across the face. The guy comes to punch me as I jump onto the bar, avoiding drinks that are on the bar. If I’m going to fight, I am going to fight in style.

He hops up on the counter with me as I throw the drink he gave me in my hand. It hits the wall and shatters with a loud bang. The man comes running at me with his fists clenched, and just as he moves it to punch me, I slide underneath him, punch the back of his head then elegantly backflip off the bar onto the ground. I smirk and wink at him as he growls, I quickly climb back up on the bar. He throws a punch and it hits me in the gut. I groan as I kick my legs out, effectively putting me off balance and falling against the counter, and the man falls off the bar onto the ground.

I stand up and cheer as security runs up to me. “Ma’am, we need to escort you out.”

I give them a dead look. “I’m not leaving.”

The security members sigh as they come closer to detain me. I sigh right as they come up to me as I grab my ID and show it to them. “See boys? I’m working with the General, you can’t escort me out, go back to what you were doing before, nothing happened,” I add a wink as I walk away for good measure. 

I go back over to where I was previously sitting and order another drink when Caiden comes running over as she sees me drinking and she groans. “Kyra.. PLEASE be responsible. In more ways than one. What even was that?”

Clover walks up behind Caiden. “Explain?”

I shrug. “He handed me a weird drink.”

“That's enough of a reason to punch him?” Clover exclaims.

I shrug. “I’m probably drunk at this point.”

Caiden sighs. “We need a different song, here, come with me Kyra.”

Caiden grabs my hand as she drags me across the nightclub, my drink in my hand. “I’m keeping an eye on you all night.”

I shrug. "I’m not a baby you know.”

Caiden sighs. “We don’t need another bar fight.”

I shrug as we approach the DJ stand. “Fair enough. Here, I’ll be a great distraction!”

I walk up to the DJ. “So what is your name?”

The DJ raises an eyebrow at me. “Cotton, what is yours?”

“OOOOOOh! That's SUCH a pretty name, it fits with how you look!” I say as I put a hand on the DJ’s shoulder. “What is a pretty boy like you doing at such a club?”

Cotton rolls his eyes, “I’m the best DJ in Mantle.”

My mouth forms into an o, “OOOOOoooooo, that makes sense! My friend really doesn’t like the song so she is cha—I mean, what is your number!!!”

Cotton seems to ignore my slip up as he hands me his number while I take a drink, “Call me when you aren’t drunk as hell.” 

I nod and stick the paper into my pocket as the song changes, Cotton looks back and doesn’t see anyone, I wink at Cotton and step back. “I got to go refill my drink!!”

Cotton waves back to me as he runs back over to the DJ booth, I find Caiden and give them a thumbs up. “Did you seriously just do that, Kyra?”

I look up at the ceiling and back down to Caiden. “Yup!”

Caiden follows me as I go to the bar and order another drink, I turn around to talk to Caiden when all of a sudden they aren’t there. I sigh as I take a drink. When all of a sudden I see the whole squad is surrounding me. What is going on?

“We are going to have a DANCE BATTLE!” Caiden exclaims as they stand onto the counter, “We each are going to have partners and we all will dance to one song!”

Caiden hops down and fistbumps me. “We are partners.”

“You are putting a lot of pressure on me here, Chai,” I say as I take another drink.

Caiden frowns. “Hold on, did you just call me Chai?”

I nod. “I like it, it is sticking.”

Caiden rolls their eyes. “First up we are going to have Ione and Cadmium against.... Vine and Elm!”

Honestly, I would watch if I wasn’t too busy drinking and looking anywhere but the dance battle that is taking place in front of us. I jump when Caiden yells, “Ione and Cadmium win!”

Everyone around us claps and cheers… oh it’s our turn next. I finish my drink and tell the bartender to get me another one. I stand up and I walk over to Caiden. “You ready?”

Caiden nods. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”

Caiden crouches down to the ground as the song starts, I run and flip over them, then instantly backflip so I am standing on their shoulders. I balance myself as Caiden stands up, with me standing on their shoulders. I salute as I backflip off their shoulders. When I hit the ground I slide under Caiden’s legs and stand back up, from there on out is a bunch of dancing, flips, and everything in between.

I wave as Caiden and I finish our performance as I sit down and take a drink of my new drink, Caiden frowns in my direction, but allows it. Our competitors were Flame and Shady, which, I mean, they did good, but I say we topped it by a good mile.

After awhile of watching preliminary rounds, I finish my drink and go to order another one when Caiden stops me, “Kyra, NO.”

I sigh as I look forward, complying with Caiden, I’ll get another one way or another. Caiden and I did our next amazing performance, but Ione and Cadmium topped it and the one, sadly. I was really wanting to win this, but you can’t win them all can you.

The final round, Ione and Cadmium versus Ray and Adrian. Honestly don’t ask me how Adrian and Ray made it. Ray I can understand, but Adrian? Don’t ask me how.

Adrian and Ray go first and I don’t know how, but Adrain can hold Ray with the palms of his hands. They dance as the music goes on, being very synchronized with the beat. When they stop, everyone claps and now it is Cadmium and Ione’s turn.

I don’t know them very well, but they dance well together. It’s just… chaotic graceful.

I raise my hand, “I choose them to win. That was the most beautiful chaotic thing I have ever seen.”

Everyone laughs but agrees so Caiden announces, “Cadmium and Ione are the winners! Congrats!”

Ray screams from across the way, “THIS IS BETRAYAL, KYRA!!!”

I laugh as I wink at Ray, “IT WAS CHAOTIC!!!”

Ray laughs. “I admit, that was chaotic, but THIS IS STILL BETRAYAL.”

I roll my eyes and walk over to the other part of the bar and sit down as I start spinning in the chair. The bartner walks over, “Need another drink?”

I nod my head. “Yeah, hit me up, Mx. Chai over here wouldn’t let me have another one. They won’t leave me alone about, like, being responsible or something. Then you have Mr. Lucky Charm over here who is probably going to give me a lecture tomorrow, but I already had that one coming for. OOOOOOOOH did you know I rode a nevermore yesterday? THEN SET IT ON FIRE?”

Ray comes and sits in the chair next to me. “I helped, by the way, while we are talking about secrets, Winter is hot.”

I roll my eyes. “Of course you did, I wouldn’t have gotten the dust if it wasn’t for you. OOOOH did you know I clotheslined Ironwood?”

The bartender looks shocked as he hands me the drink. I just absolutely down this drink as I see Caiden walk up to me and grab my arm, “That’s it, you’re done, let’s go.”

Ray follows us as I get dragged out of the club. “C’monnnnnnnn Chai, don’t ruin the fun.”

Caiden just frowns at me. “We are leaving, don’t even argue.”

Ray behind me calls for a transport and it arrives, and everyone climbs inside. “That was a fun night,” Elm says as she sits down, “Thanks for inviting us.”

I nod my head. “You’re welcome, we would’ve had more fun if someone wouldn’t have dragged me out!”

Vine sits down next to Elm. “It’s probably for the best, we have an early day tomorrow.”

“PFFFF, No one is getting me out of bed, I’m staying in bed till I want to get up,” I say.

Clover sits down. “As much as I hate to admit it, I think I have to agree.”

When we get back to the academy Caiden leads me to my room and lays me on Sandra’s bed, “You and Sandra are switching beds tonight.”

“AWWW COME ON,” I say as I lay on the bed and pull out my scroll, “The minute you leave I’m getting on my bed.”

Caiden sighs and turns to Luke, “Make sure she stays down here.”

Luke gives Caiden a thumbs up as Caiden leaves. I roll my eyes and open my scroll.

Winter: WHY IS THERE A HOLE BURNED INTO MY WALL???????

Feral Energy: Don’t ask me, alsoooooo btw Winter, Ray thinks you are hot.

Needs A Coat: Kyra why

Winter: I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that.

Needs A Coat: :(

Penny: I PRANKED you.

Winter: Penny… why did you listen to Kyra

Penny: Kyra is who I aspire to be in the chaotic world.

Needs A Coat: Penny I actually love you

Kyra changes Caiden’s name to Chai

Chai: Why….

Feral Energy: Because Chai Team. Caiden, Chai, sounds enough alike

Chai: Luke, have some pain killers in the morning…

Luke: On it.

Feral Energy: I’m fineeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Chai: You won’t be saying that in the morning

Feral Energy: Bet?

Chai: You’re on.

Feral Energy: See ya tomorrow. No one wake me up or you’ll have a broken nose.

Needs A Coat: y’all Kyra has like 20 points in the prank war, just leaving that out there :)


	9. 8

I internally groan as I wake up in the bottom bunk, well, Sandra’s bed. I put my hand to my head and look around, everyone is still sleeping. Too much thinking is going to make my head hurt more than it already is. I look to the side of me and see two tablets and a note that reads:

‘Thank us later -Caiden & Luke’

I get up as my head starts to pound, I really could use those right now, I really could. But against my better judgment, I am not letting Caiden win that bet, I’ll go find my own painkillers. I grab Crystal Thorn and attach it to my belts as I open the door and step outside my room.

I wander off to the bathroom and throw the medicine cabinet door open. I glance around the cabinet and see the painkillers are gone, I am so going to kill Caiden. Well, it was worth a shot. I tap into my semblance and see everyone in Caiden’s dorm room sleeping still. I look around and see the pill bottle sitting right next to her. Bastard. I tap out as I lean my head against the wall and close my eyes. Someone is seriously going to die for this.

I open my eyes again and realize that I can’t see anything, oh, right. How did I forget an important part of my semblance? Well, at least the light won’t be giving me trouble now. I use my hands to feel my way out of the bathroom and I stand in the hallway. I don’t know my way around good enough to go anywhere while blind, but it’s worth a good shot.

I put my arm out in front of me as I start to walk, and every time I hit a wall, I turn. My hand hits something and I go to turn when I realize it isn’t a wall.

“Hello?” I ask as I wave my arm around in front of me.

“What are you? Blind?” Clover asks.

“I’m literally blind right now for your information, and I am also very, very lost.”

Clover laughs, “So that’s how you ended up in the hallway with all the Ace Op rooms,” I feel some pills drop into my hands, I look up slightly.

“Why are you giving me these?” I ask.

“I know you would be too stubborn to take the ones Caiden and Luke provided you because you wanted to win a bet. So this is our secret.”

I look down to where I think my hand is and look back up, “I have nothing to take the pills with.”

I have something shoved into my hands and without a second thought I swallow the pills and hold the bottle back out for Clover to take, “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome, now where do you want to go?”

A few hours later, after my vision comes back, I step into Ironwood’s office, my headache not as bad. I sit down and lean against the wall. Everyone has started to file in, but no one has noticed me yet?

“I swear, Kyra is going to be late again,” Sandra sighs as she paces.

“She didn’t even take the painkillers,” Caiden says, “That girl is crazy.”

Ray looks over. “She didn’t? Maybe she’s passed out somewhere with a major headache.”

I stand up, “Geez guys, how did no one notice me. I’ve been here for ages.”  
Everyone turns slowly to me and I wave, “Good morning. Time to get to work.”

Caiden’s eyes look like they are about to pop out of their head, “W-What?!”

“It’s because you were being quiet for once,” Ray says. “Can’t relate.” 

Ironwood stands up. “Thank you for meeting me today everyone. First thing first, we are having Sandra, Blake, and Yang go on a truck through Mantle. We had a whole truck of dust get stolen yesterday, and I want that dust, protected. You three, your transport is outside.”

All three of them nod as they head out. Ironwood gives us various assignments until there are only a few of us left. He stops giving out assignments and looks at us. He turns back to the window then walks forward. “This is the worst-case scenario, people are dead, Penny is being framed, and somehow Jacques Schnee is sitting on the council.”

“As you said earlier, the trucks are being ambushed,” Caiden says from beside me.

Clover nods, “That was the second ship headed for Amity that was hit today. Seems election night was the last push Robyn needed to go from Hometown hero to full on vigilante.”

Winter looks to Clover then back to the rest of us, “I’m afraid the problem is more complicated than that.”

“What is complicated then?” I say looking at Winter when Ironwood speaks.

“It seems Robyn has emboldened our suppliers in Mantle. They are refusing to sell us provisions till the city is adequately repaired. With Robyn redistributing the goods her team has STOLEN, the Amity Project is completely stalled.”

I look between everyone in the room, waiting for someone to say something. 

Ruby steps forward. “But we are so close, there has to be some way we can finish the tower.”

Winter looks between Ironwood and Ruby, “There is,” she pauses, “declaring martial law.”

I frown at Winter. “What?”

Caiden looks at me then to Winter. “No?”

I look around the room to see everyone is as shocked as I am. He wouldn’t declare martial law right? That’s just not okay, I would have no choice but to turn my back on him.

Nora steps forward, clearly upset. “You’re not actually considering that are you?”

Ironwood steps in front of his desk and looks down at Nora. “What's more important, establishing communications, unite the world, or appeasing a few city blocks.”

Nora steps forward again, daring the General to say something. “Don’t make it sound trivial when you know it isn’t. You keep talking about how we need just a little more time but you’re not the one having to struggle.”

Ironwood sighs. “We have all had to make sacrifices for the greater good. Mantle has had to bear a lot of the burden, yes,” he raises his index finger, “But-”

Nora starts to take a few steps forward towards Ironwood. “They are bearing ALL OF IT. The longer this waiting game goes on the harder each day gets for people down there. AND NOW you want to send in MORE soldiers? You can’t force people to fall in line! If you do that you’ll just be trading all of these problems for the Grimm!”

I look between Nora and Ironwood, waiting for either of them to say anything when Ruby walks forward and sets a hand on Nora’s shoulder. “Please General Ironwood, squeezing Mantle this way… that kind of division plays right into Salem's hands. That’s why Tyrian is here framing you.”

Clover steps forward. “Right, the reason we called you here in the first place. You are sure this is the man you saw?”

Clover pulls up Tyrian’s profile and shows it to us, I squint at the man in the photo when Winter says, “Tyrian Callows was accused of Murders all across Anima. A homicidal maniac who escaped Justice when his prison transport was attacked by Grimm. After that, he was never seen again.”

Ruby nods confidently. “Well, he works for Salem, and he’s here.”

I hear Qrow step forward a bit and I turn around. “If we ever had any doubts Atlas was Salem’s next target, I think those are officially out the window.” 

Yes, the reason I came to Atlas in the first place. They all just made my job a lot easier, I came here to make a stand against Salem, and try to stop her. I’m not stupid enough to think I could do it solo though, I was going to come up with a plan when I got here. One step at a time.

Ruby looks to Clover. “Now we have a suspect, we can tell the people.”

Clover looks at Ruby and puts away his scroll. “That a long lost serial killer is loose in Mantle and that the military has no idea where he is, might make things worse before they get better.”

I look between Ruby and Clover when I say, “We also have no proof that it is actually him. I trust you, and I can confirm he is alive myself if I wanted to, but there is no proof to show the people. No video, nothing.”

Nora steps back a bit. “I am so sick of secrets! If we just told everyone about Amity, about Salem-”

“We CAN’T.” Everyone looks at Ironwood. Ironwood steps forward and looks over all of us. “If we talk about Amity now, we risk Salem’s forces, who we know are here, working to sabotage it. If we tell them about Salem now, we risk falling to the Grimm before we can reunite Remnant. We HAVE to finish the Tower. I want Robyn Hill in custody, we can offer her a deal IF she gets Mantle to cooperate.”

Clover nods to Ironwood. “We’ll figure it out.”

Ironwood starts to walk forward towards the door, I frown as he walks past me, “Anyone not assisting with Robyn needs to focus on Tyrian. Luke, Maddy, and Mira can keep doing what they are doing, everyone else is assisting with Tyrian. I want to know who he is working with, where he is hiding, what he is planning, and how exactly that video of Penny got all over MY kingdom,” he pauses once he gets to the door, “Do I make myself clear?

Clover and Winter speak at the same time, “Yessir.”

A moment passes and Ren speaks up, “Yessir.”

We all look to Ren, our faces a mix of shock and confusion. Winter goes and follows Ironwood out when we all look at each other.

Clover looks to me. “Kyra, your semblance allows you to see where people are right?”

I nod to Clover. “I am assuming you want me to use it?”

I envision Tyrian in my mind and tap into my semblance. I look around to see that we are in a smaller place, with the door shut, great. I look up and see a massive computer screen and a man sitting there. This man is definitely not Tyrian. I turn around and see Tyrian gazing up at me- wait no, he can’t see me. There aren’t words spoken between the two, and it doesn’t like anyone is going to be leaving anytime soon.

I tap out of my semblance and immediately groan. “Are you serious, this is the second time I’m blind today, this is just great.”

Clover looks at me expectantly. I shake my head.

“They are in a building, and look like they are not leaving anytime soon.”

“They?” Ruby says.

I nod. “There was another man in there with Tyrian, he had some mad computer skills.”

Clover nods and thinks for a minute, “You are all dismissed, other than Kyra, though be ready to come back at any time.”

“What did he look like?”

I pause and think back, “Mustaste, tall, black hair, though it is grey on the bottom.”

“That's all?”

I nod and Clover says, “Alright, you are dismissed as well.”  
I walk out of Ironwood’s office, feeling my way out, and sit down, leaning my head against the wall. Who was that man? What was he wanting with us? Actually, no, what do they want with us. Would Ironwood declare Martial Law? He seemed… very off. As the conversation gets over, my vision slowly comes back.

I stand up and pace back and forth in front of his office, when I hear the door open and Clover walks out, “Kyra?”

I look over at Clover and wave, “I was just getting ready to leave.”

Clover raises an eyebrow at me, “It sure didn’t seem like it, you seemed to be deep in thought, so go on.”

I sigh and turn to Clover, “What do you think of this whole situation?”

Clover without any thought to the question says, “I trust the General, and you should too.”

“Even if he declares martial law?”

Clover nods, “I trust his judgment, I trust the man with my life.”

I frown and walk up to Clover. “The only person that should be making judgment for you, is you, Clover. Give it some thought, you don’t have to follow everything he says. You have other people that have your back.”

With that I turn around and start to head back to my dorm room, I really should just demand pay and get an apartment, then no one can prank me and I can win this prank war, plus an apartment would be bigger, well, I would buy a bigger apartment.

But if I even did I’m sure he would say something on the lines of ‘We need all hands on deck.’ Thanks Ironwood, I really applaud you. 

As I am walking back to my dorm I see Adrian waving at me, “Hey! Kyra!”

I stop and look back at Adrian, “Hey, Adrian, how are you, didn’t you have a mission assignment?”

Adrian nods, “Yes, but not for a little while yet, would you like to accompany me to the cafeteria?”

I shrug and nod. “Sure, why not, I could use a refill.”

I hold up my flask and shake it. “See? Nothing in it? I really should just get the things to make it in my room, that would be so much more convenient.”

Adrian chuckles as we walk by a closet. Adrian grabs my shoulders and shoves me in the closet and slams the door in front of me. I hear fiddling with the door. I walk up to the door and try to turn the handle, it won’t go.

“Adrian?”

“This is what you deserve.”

“What did I do?” I ask as I go and sit, my back leaning up against the door.

“Damn, you really don’t know? There is a dent in my wall because of you.”

I hear Adrian’s footsteps walk away from me. I groan, did he seriously lock me in a closet for payback? Well I might as well make myself at home, then try to get out, you know does this count as a jailbreak if I get out? Probably not. 

I look around. It’s not like I have night vision, but after my eyes adjust to the dark, I can see decently well. I see some boxes and blankets, some ammo…

Let’s build a fort. I grab the boxes and start to rearrange them how I want them to create a castle shape look. It’s not the biggest closet, but it will make do. I then grab the blankets and drape them over the top boxes to create a roof, though I keep one in the fort to use as a pillow. You can make anything fun if you really want to. I grab the ammo and set them on top of the blanket ends on the boxes to keep them stable and from falling and suffocating me.

I climb into the fort and lay the blanket down to use as a pillow. I might be a little dramatic, but if I am going to die in a closet, I’m going to die in style.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------

I see Adrian start walking to our transport, I wave at him, “Hey! Adrian! Let’s go!”

Adrian and I climb onto the transport. We were protecting the dust carts headed out of Mantle.

We sit down and I look at Adrian, “So… why were you late?”

“Almost.” Adrian just smirks and holds up a cup. “I was just getting a refill before I came here you know?”

I nod. “Things in Mantle seem to be getting… tense..”

Adrian nods and turns to look out a window, not talkative today I guess. I sigh and lean my head back. I thought this was going to be a short trip to Atlas and back, but now I am wrapped up in something much bigger than me, and I have to help them, I have to help everyone. I can’t just walk away from this like nothing happened. Or, I guess I could, but they are counting on me, and I am counting on them. We’ll get through this together.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I hear a knock on the door and I shoot awake and rub my eyes. I grab Crystal Thorn and crawl out of my fort, “Yes?”

I hear Flame’s voice through the door, “Are you… okay?”

I gaze up and see pink eyes staring back at me. Wait… weren’t they yellow last time? I wave., “Yeah, I’m fine. Adrian just locked me in a closet as a prank or something. I decided to make a fort for fun! Also… what is up with your eyes?”

Flame’s eyes flicker down for a brief moment before looking up., “Let’s go, we are patrolling Mantle’s walls tonight.”

I follow Flame., “You are avoiding the question!”

Flame looks down and whispers, “We’ll talk about this later, okay?”

I frown., “Don’t think I’ll forget.”

Flame and I walk in a comfortable silence when I ask, “How did you find me?”

Flame laughs quietly, “It wasn’t that hard actually, there was tape all over the door knob and wall.”

I burst out laughing., “I guess I didn’t even try to get the door open that hard.”

Flame’s laughs become a little bit more loud as we walk and climb into our transport. We sit down and I put my face in my hands.

“What’s wrong?”

I look up and give Flame a smile, “Some people today…”

“Care to elaborate?”

“Ironwood has almost taken a dive off the deep end, wanting to declare martial law, I just have no clue what to even think of him anymore, and what I want to do. Clover wants to follow him blindly, and I haven’t even talked to Caiden yet. That was the most morally conflicting meeting of my life, and I’ve been in a lot of frustrating meetings. “

Flame nods. “Tell me more.”

I go on to explain the meeting till we are down in Mantle and are walking along the outer wall of Mantle when I turn to ask Flame, “So what is up with your eyes?”

Flame turns to look at me when her eyes turn to a bright red, “Why does that matter to you?”

I frown and step back, “Your eyes just did it again!”

Flame just smirks as she starts walking towards me and is right up in my face, “This has nothing to do with you.”

I frown. “This has everything to do with me Flame! You’re my friend! Just tell me what’s going on before I draw my own conclusion!”

Flame smirks and her eyes turn blue. “Why would you want to know?”

“Listen, Flame, I don’t know what is going on, but could you please step back a bit.”

Flame steps back and orange flames shoot out of her eyes. What in the world is even happening? My head swarms with ideas that I can’t seem to unscramble in this moment.

“What the hell?”

Flame smiles sweetly. “What don’t you understand? I’m the Summer Maiden.”

I squint at her and run the possibilities through my head. “Bullshit.”

Flame floats above the ground but the flames slowly disappear. “What do you mean, bullshit? Don’t I look just like a Maiden?”

I snort. “It’s nothing against your acting powers or anything, but I would just call bullshit on that stuff ninety percent of the time. Now can you please tell me what's going on that the bullshit is all done and over with?”

“My semblance is copying the semblances of people I have formed a close bond with. I didn’t want to give anything away so that's why I didn’t say anything at the beginning. Combining some of them happens to let me imitate magic rather well.”

I look at Flame and nod. “Thanks for telling me, Flame.”

Flame nods and we continue to walk. “But, we are on the same side Kyra, and I trust you. Please do not tell anyone about this, when Ironwood goes crazy, we need to have an element of surprise against him.”

“We?”

Flame nods. “You and I are in this together, we both don’t trust Ironwood as much anymore, well I never fully trusted him. Salem is certainly watching us as well. Anyone we tell could let it get to her or to Ironwood, and we need to have the upper hand.”

“With just the two of us?”

Flame smiles and looks at me. “You are a powerful fighter, we would love to have you, you know.”

I nod. “I’ll consider it, I know I can’t do everything on my own, though my one requirment is that wherever I go, if Caiden wants to go, they get to come.”

Flame nods. “I probably can make that work if you decide to come with us. This is a fight we all want to stop, and we all know we can’t do it on our own, we need the best of the best on our side.”

“I wouldn’t go that far.”

Flame rolls her eyes. “You’re good at what you do, and better than most people at what you do. Not to mention your semblance is one of a kind.”

“Everyone’s semblance is one of a kind.” I laugh. “I just do what I have to do.”

“You are also one to question everything around you and can think fast.”

“Geez, stop throwing so many compliments my way, I might pass out.”

Flame and I continue our walk around Mantle's wall for a while till I finally stop and sit down, “Hey, how long did you sign us up for this patrol?”

Flame sighs, “5am.”

I am about to say something when I feel my scroll buzz and I pick it up and it reads.

Winter: Atlas Ball tomorrow. Be ready.

“Me and parties? Check me out.” I groan as I put my scroll on the ground.

Flame looks down at me. “What did it say?”

I look up at Flame, “Atlas Ball tomorrow, we were all invited I assume.”

Flame tilts her head to the side a bit, and I notice her eyes are orange now. “If you don’t want to go, why not just have fun with it?”

I smirk. “I like where this is going.”

Flame turns her back to me and looks out over the tundra. “I don’t think you can go a day without doing something chaotic.”

“Bet?”

Flame stills look out over the tundra and says, “It’s on, after tomorrow.”

“Why did you have to sign us up till five in the morning?”

Flame turns around and leans against the wall. “I sleep in the same room as you, I know your sleep schedule.”

“Wow, thanks Flame. I feel honored.”

Flame and I get up again and start to walk to the wall. All while my mind is reeling about one question. What do I want to do once this is all over?


	10. 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We are so.... close to the finale...

I glance out the window as we approach the Schnee Manor, I turn to Flame and Caiden, “I seriously- I mean why am I even here?”

Flame shrugs, “Public appearances, maybe? You aren’t exactly not known.”

I huff and cross my arms. “I absolutely hate parties!”

“You what?” Ray asks. “Sure didn’t seem like it at the last one.”

“That was a club, there’s a difference.”

Caiden turns to me and puts a hand on my shoulder. “It can’t be that bad, just try to make the best of it.”

The car stops and everyone starts to open their doors, here we go. I open my door and look around to see the cameras. What was Flame saying about public appearances? I glance to my sides and see everyone else getting out of their cars, I walk over to where Ironwood is standing with the rest of his team.

“Suppose we should smile for the cameras?” Ironwood says as we all start to walk into the inside of the house.

“Sir, with all due respect, you’d have to pay me,” Winter says.

I snort at Winter’s comment as we start to approach the manor. I mean, manors look pretty and all of that, but why would you live in one? They are way too big.

When we arrive at the door, Ironwood rings the doorbell and reveals who I would assume to be Whitley Schnee, “Good evening, everyone.”

I nod to Whitley when Weiss asks, “Where’s Klein?”

Whitley smirks. “What an interesting way to say “Hello, dear brother, how have you been?” He pauses, “I’m afraid you won’t find him here. He was let go. I can’t imagine why.”

I hear Weiss gasp from ahead of us when Whitley asks, “General, exactly how large do you think our dining table is?”

“I happen to know it’s enormous. But most of my guests will be on standby in case the council requests additional eyewitnesses. Until then I’m sure they’ll be happily celebrating your father’s victory.”

Whitley turns around and leads us inside.He moves to walk off “For those of you joining us in the dining room, please follow me.”

Ironwood, Penny, Winter, and Clover follow Whitley when Clover glances back over his shoulder at Qrow. “Wish us luck.”

Qrow snorts. “I mean, they already invited you, didn’t they?”

Clover chuckles softly as he walks away. I turn to Caiden and Flame. “So here we are?”

Flame chuckles. “Yeah, here we are, what does everyone want to do?”

As Flame says that Harriet raises an eyebrow and turns to face all of us, “Right, well, don’t wander off, don’t break anything, and be ready in case the General calls on you.”

She walks away with the rest of the Ace Ops and I start to laugh, “I feel directly called out there.”

Caiden shrugs. “Well she isn’t wrong.”

We walk over to Team RWBY just as Yang says, “Counterpoint, how about we do wander off, consider breaking things, and then all that other stuff.”

I give Yang a thumbs up. “I can agree with that.”

Weiss walks away. “I’ll be in touch.”

I turn to Ruby. “What is she up to?”

Ruby then explains to my group and me what is going on. I nod and turn back. “Let us know if you guys need anything, alright? I think we might go cause some ruckus.”

“Kyra…” Flame sighs.

I raise an eyebrow. “Do you want to be here?”

“Of course not, who does?” Ray grins. “I’m with Kyra on this one.”

I turn around and wave. As we start to walk away,I turn to them and start to pull out plastic knives from every place I could have possibly stored one. As we approach the rest of the Argus gang, I hand them each a plastic knife, everyone gives me a confused look.

“Do I want to know where you got those?” Ray asks.

“Atlas has same-day delivery, don’t worry about it. Listen. We could be doing some like patrolling or something, but Qrow and Marrow have that handled. We are in the Schnee Manor people. The SCHNEE MANOR, so, of course, we aren’t just going to sit around like the good representatives we should be. So we are going to run around the Manor, and whoever stabs most people, one of us I may add, wins! Yes, I would like to stab everyone else, but I have a feeling someone wouldn’t be very happy about that, and this is one time Ironwood doesn’t need a distraction.”

Caiden clears her throat. “Kyra, I had to break it to you but,” they pause, “We were told to not wander off, which includes causing chaos in the Schnee Manor.”

I shrug. “Add this to my list of reasons I should be in jail then.”

Caiden sighs but smiles. “I will admit, this sounds fun.”

I hold up my fingers and start counting down, “3….2….1….GO!”

We all take off in different directions. I run past Whitley, flying up the stairs. Whitley turns around, about to yell at me when he gets wine poured all over his shirt. I burst out laughing as I run down the hallways of the Schnee Manor. I pause as I see Cadmium in the distance and start to run for him, he swings his knife at me as I duck under it, stabbing mine in his back. I see a flash from the corner of my eye just before I feel a plastic knife digging into my back.

I flash both Cad and Ione a smile before I wave goodbye. I start sprinting through the hallways again when I hear Ruby through my earpiece. “What are you all doing?”

I respond with a simple, “Running around stabbing people.”

I hear Qrow’s voice next. “That sounds a lot worse than I know it is!”

I hear Harriet’s voice next. “What did I tell you guys!”

I snort. “Come and catch me if you can Harriet!”

Caiden talks next. “Kyra… you do know what her semblance is, right?”

I turn a corner and duck into a room. “Of course I do! But she’ll have to find me first!”

“Fuck you!”

I lean against the wall, “I thought you were supposed to be professional and on your best behavior, Harriet.”

“Oh, I’ll take any chance I can get to give you what you should be getting.”

I shrug. “Fair enough, come at me.”

I look out the door and look both ways before darting out, I know that doesn’t really do any good against Harriet, but I might as well.

I dart into another room when I hear a taunting voice in my ear. “Come out come out wherever you are.”

“You are making me lose this game, Harriet!” I say as I run out into the hallway again.

There’s some muffled laughing over comms that sounds suspiciously like Ray, but I’ve got more important things to worry about at the moment. Like running.

“You should’ve just followed orders!”

I pass the doors to the dining hall, one just closing due to a waiter going in there, I look at Clover’s face, and he looks like he is about to burst out laughing, all well trying to look serious. I see a whiz of lightning fly down the hall next to me, I slip into the dining room just as the door shuts. They all look my way and I wave, “Hello everyone.”

Winter raises an eyebrow at me. “Why are you here?”

I wave Winter off. “I just needed to get to the other side of this dining room, you know I’m currently running from someone, so I shall just make my way-”

“Wait,” I hear Jacques say as he smiles at me, “Have a seat, I would be so happy to have another one of Ironwood’s partners sitting down at the table with us.”

I glance at Ironwood and he gives me a nod, I glance both ways as I take a seat next to Clover, he throws me a glance and I start to laugh silently. 

I tap into my earpiece. “You’ll never find me now if you don’t want to get in trouble.”

Clover throws me a look as we hear the councilman start to talk, “Back on track, the fact of the matter is, you’ve operated with a fair amount of autonomy for the past few years, James. But what we need now is for you to work with us.”

I look over to Winter to see her tapping her finger on the table. The tensions are surely high in this room, why am I even in here again? Can’t I just go back to my fun game? I hear a crashing noise in my earpiece and I wince, I look over to Clover and he raises an eyebrow. Whatever the rest of the team is doing while I’m stuck in this dumb meeting I don’t even want to be at, I’m proud of them. I don’t have any care for politics in Atlas.

Ironwood speaks again. “Sir, I have-”

The councilwoman cuts him off, “It’s obvious that no kingdom intends to declare war on Atlas. We had no involvement in the incident at Haven we have proof our drones weren’t acting on orders at Beacon. At this point, the closure of Atlas borders is only serving to hurt our relations with the rest of the world.”

Oh, here we go.

“I-” Ironwood starts.

“The rest of the world? It’s hurting us. The people of Atlas are suffering and they want to know why.”

I glance down the table to look at Jackass Schnee, I don’t know the man personally, but what I have seen is him and I would not get along.

“Quite right, Ms. Hill,” Jackass says, “And I’m afraid there’s more than just your choices that have brought harm to our citizens as of late. Have your forces found any additional evidence as to who is slaughtering innocent civilians down in Mantle.”

I see Clover look at Ironwood, then to Jackass, “That is an ongoing investigation, the details of which are classified, I’m afraid.”

Jackass sighs. “I’m afraid of the ever-growing list of classified information you seem to be keeping. Ms. Baki, do you have anything to say since you aren’t in the Atlas military?”

Hey, I’m not in the Atlas military. Funny thing, that.

I put my thumb and my index finger on my face as I start to tilt it from side to side. “So this is the reason you brought me in here? To see if you could get anything out of me, well I hate to break it to you, I don’t like you Jackass, I really don’t. So while I might give you some information if I liked you, I clearly don’t, but I will give you this. First, Ironwood, the Ace Ops, and my team are working very hard on these cases, but we clearly don’t trust you, as you guys don’t trust us. See the problem here? If no one trusts each other, why are we even here, nothing is getting accomplished? Think about this, all of you. If it were up to me, I wouldn’t want to work with you Jackass, but clearly none of us have no choice in the matter, so stop think any of you are the fucking king of this kingdom because you aren’t, none of us are. So start to try to work together, I swear to the gods if I have to listen to any more of this, I will get up and leave this dining room and go back to what I’m doing, and if you invited me here in the first place, we really don’t want to do that do we?” I pause and look between Jackass and Ironwood, “If we don’t work together that just leaves an opening to get attacked.”

Jackass frowns in my direction, “By who?”

I smile. “Don’t you see it? Look at the murders down in Mantle, people are here coming for us, and they won’t stop till they get what they want.”

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I feel my scroll start to buzz and I stop and pick it up, “Hello?”

I hear a voice on the other line, “Hello Mr. Cross, we got word that there was some suspicious activity going around near a jewelry shop.”

I nod as I look to Mira and Maddy. “Thank you, we’ll be on our way.”

I hang up and turn to Mira and Maddy. “I found the shop, well they did, we need to get going.”

We start to backtrack the way we came as I call a transport. “You guys are about to meet my brother.”

We run out of the Manor just as our transport arrives, we hop onto it. “Take us to this address.”

The pilot nods as she takes off. I sigh. “I’m so sorry you guys got dragged into this.”

Maddy smiles and sits next to me, “We wouldn’t let you do this alone you know, you matter to us.”

I look up at Maddy and smile. “What would I do without you guys?”

Mira seems to think for a minute before smiling back. “That is a good question, probably not what you are doing now.”  
\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I swear, I SWEAR if I have to sit in this meeting any longer I am going to go CRAZY. Politics are going to be the death of me, I really don’t mind reading about them, but being in the middle of this? Please kill me. Winter just went on a tangent and is going to-

“Winter.” Ironwood states looking at Winter, “That’s enough.”

Winter clenches her fists and stands up, I almost have to feel bad for the girl at this moment. “Excuse me.”

I wrap my hand up into a fist as I lean my elbow on the table and put my head on my fist as the conversation goes on. I seriously am about to fall asleep if I have to listen to this any longer.

This whole Atlas thing is getting boring. I came here to stop Salem, not get involved in this shit. Salem is coming here, and we are clearly not ready, no matter what Ironwood says. The council is fighting, Atlas and Mantle are torn, and everything is falling to absolute pieces. Well, I guess we don’t really need Ironwood, I mean we’ve already come so far. I mean it would be useful, but if it comes to it, I know they have my backs.

Flame, she wants me to come with them, to fight for them, I have no reason to doubt her. It would be a good opportunity for me to be able to have other people with me, and I don’t think Flame would be inviting me if she knew how I acted with authority. I mean, she does, but if she knew it would be a problem, she wouldn’t have.

I look up at what seems to be Jackass and Ironwood arguing still. All I know is I have a bad gut feeling about tonight, and that I need to find Flame and Caiden.

I stand up, “If you’ll excuse me, I have matters I need to attend to. Thank you for having me.”

I walk out of the room as I tap into my earpiece, “Flame, Caiden, where are you?”

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We rush down into the jewelry store, I push open the door and see everything still in its place. I walk up to the shopkeeper, “Have you seen any suspicious activity around here?”

The shopkeeper shakes his head and I frown, I check the address again and show the shopkeeper. “This is your address right?”

The shopkeeper nods again and I frown as I walk towards the door. “Thank you.”

As we exit the store Mira asks, “Are we just leaving just like that?”

I shrug. “We aren’t leaving, we are just hanging around.”

I walk across the street and sit on the ground, leaning against a wall. “We just have to wait a little bit.”

“What if he never shows up?” Maddy asks.

I sigh. “Then we were wrong, and someone is dead,” I pause and look down at my hands, “And, I really don’t want that to happen, so we better hope we are right.”

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I meet up with Flame and Caiden at the grand staircase when Caiden asks, “What is it, Kyra?”

I sigh, “First, as you know Harriet was coming after me, so I had to slip into the dining room, then Jackass Schnee decided to have me stay there! I swear, you never want to sit through a political meeting.”

Flame laughs, “Is that all you really needed?”

I shake my head and look down, I hold my stomach and look up. “I just have a really bad feeling about tonight and it’s making me feel sick.”

Flame frowns. “Are you sure you aren’t just tired? We had a late night last night.”

I shake my head. “I would feel tired if I was tired, this is different.”

“Maybe a new side effect to your semblance?” Caiden asks.

I snort. “I haven’t used my semblance since yesterday, it wouldn’t be doing this.”

Flame nods. “Fair point, well let’s go have something to eat of the sorts while we wait, shall we?”

I nod and we all walk over to a table that has plenty of food on it, I smile and grab a plate, and start to put some of the very, overly fancy, snack food on it, making sure that none of it touches each other. After I fill my plate I wait for Flame and Caiden. When they arrive I’ve already eaten half of my plate.

Caiden raises an eyebrow. “You ate all of that, that fast?”

I laugh a bit. “It’s a talent of mine.”

Flame rolls her eyes, which are currently pink, at me. “You seem to have many talents, one being avoiding death.”

“I’m a professional at that one!”

I feel my scroll buzz, I hand my plate to Flame and pull out my scroll. I see it’s a message from Luke, I frown and open the message, it reads:

Luke: It’s snowing.

Kyra: Where are you?

Luke: Mantle, it’s getting colder by the minute, someone needs to figure out what is happening.

I look back up at Flame and Caiden and frown. “I was right, shit is about to go down I think.”

Caiden looks at me, concerned. “What is it?”

I look from Flame to Caiden. “It’s snowing in Mantle.”

Flame frowns. “But the heating system-”

I cut Flame off, “Well clearly it’s not doing its job if it’s snowing.”

“Who in the hell would do this?” Caiden asks.

Flame looks between the both of us. “Ironwood would, that’s who.”


	11. 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Everything... is about to go DOWN.

Caiden and I both look at Flame and I shake my head. “He wouldn’t. Would he?”

Flame laughs a bit. “We all know Ironwood, he’s been acting off this past few days, I wouldn’t put it past him to do something like this.”

I look to the ground, Ironwood isn’t this dumb. He’s been the General for quite a while now to my knowledge. He wouldn’t just turn off Mantle’s heating for no reason. I look up and over to Caiden.

“You go find Ironwood and figure out what is going on and if we should be concerned, Flame and I are going down to Mantle to find Luke.”

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I nod as I turn around and run in the direction that Whitley went when they first came. This is bad, really bad. It’s snowing, and the people down there already don’t like us, General Ironwood.

I look around at the pictures and paintings hanging on the wall when I see a huge door, I run-up to the door and slowly start to open it, and hear Robyn.

“I’m not quite done yet. You’re afraid of something, General, aren’t you?”

Everyone looks to me and Ironwood says, “Caiden? Is something the matter?”

I frown and shake my head, I’ll bring it up at a later time, I go and sit down, Ironwood continues, “I think that’s pretty obvious, Miss Hill. I’m trying to prevent Atlas from becoming another Beacon, another Haven.”

I glance down to Jacques and he seems not focused and concerned when Ironwood says, “I’m not hiding anything.”

That’s a lot of bullshit.

“I’m not hiding anything.”

Robyn stands up and approaches Ironwood, “You’re all aware of my semblance. Let’s settle it here and now, General Ironwood.”

Oh shit, we are so screwed.

Robyn extends a hand to Ironwood, “Here and now.”

I stand up as well as Weiss comes bursting through the door, “Wait!”

Everyone pauses what they are doing to look at Weiss. Weiss glances to me, then General Ironwood, then to Robyn, “You’ve got the wrong man on trial!” 

She walks into the room and stands next to Jacques, “I know who’s been framing Ironwood, who rigged the election, and my father does too. He’s been working with him.”

I frown and sit back down, Weiss sets a scroll on the table and you see two people. Is that Jacques? There is also a different man in the office with him, not sure who it is though.

The woman stands up, “Is that,” she pauses for a moment, “Arthur Watts?”

The other man stands up now as well, “That’s impossible! Dr. Watts died in the Paladin Incident years ago!”

Jacques looks mortified, “Wha-what is this?”

Ironwood is the final one to stand up, I stand up with him, “Play it.”

Weiss taps the play button and the video starts to play.

“That bastard is costing me more money every day with this embargo, I’d lay off every employee in Mantle if I wasn’t trying to get their damn votes for this Council seat!” Jacques says in the video.

Watts smirks, “What if I said you could have your cake and eat it, too.”

The video continues to play on as we stare at it in horror. When it is finished, Ironwood walks over to Weiss.

“Enough.”

Weiss clicks on the scroll and makes the floating screen disappear, everyone looks at Jacques accusingly.

“That, that is- I-” Jacque starts.

Jacques stands up and puts his hands in the air, “I can explain that. That… isn’t real.”

I stand up, “Bullshit, you can’t fake something like that!”

The councilman looks at Jacques, “Jacques, take your seat.”

Now I know what Kyra meant when she said tensions were very high in this room, I’ll have to tell them as soon as everything calms down and I get enough information.  
Jacques starts to run for the door, as he swings the doors open he finds Weiss’s main summon standing there, he turns around.

“Weiss…”

Weiss looks at her father, “Jacques Schnee, you’re under arrest.”

I smile at Weiss, arresting her own father, that would take some gut. She shows Jacques her Huntress license to him and looks over her shoulder.

“Can I do that?”

I start to laugh at Weiss, “Yes, yes you can.”

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We run through Mantle as we see people panicking, staring bonfires, screaming at Atlas. This is bad, this is REALLY BAD. The Grimm, the Grimm are coming.

I turn to Flame as we run through Mantle, “This is bad.”

Flame hesitates before saying, “This is about to be bad, but I know you’ll stick by me through all of it, we have each other’s backs.”

We hear a woman yell, “Atlas killed the heat on purpose!”

I snort. “These people really hate Atlas.”

Flame rolls her eyes, “I would too if I lived down here.”

We approach Luke, Maddy, and Mira. I bend down, “Hey, this escalated quickly.”

Luke nods, “It really did,” he stands up, “Thanks for coming here so quickly, how was everything up there?”

I shrug. “I got pulled into the meeting- which, remind me to just leave next time.”

Luke laughs, “Kyra, in a political meeting? I can’t even imagine it.”

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We are all standing around Jacques when Clover turns to me, “What did you need, Caiden? Did something happen to Kyra?”

I sigh. “Luckily, no,” I hesitate, “The heat went off in Mantle.”

Clover looks shocked. “The what?”

I repeat myself, “The heat went off in Mantle.”

Clover turns around. “Caiden says the heating is off in Mantle,” he turns back to me, “Kyra, Flame, the rest of them, where are they?”

I shrug, “Not sure where most people are at, I know Kyra and Flame went down to Mantle to go find Luke and his group. They’re already down there.”

I feel my scroll buzz.

Kyra: It’s utter panic down here, the Grimm are sure to arrive.

I look up. “Kyra says it is bad down there, everyone is panicking and not happy.”

Clover sighs and Ironwood looks to Jacques, “You have to believe me, I didn’t know he was planning this!”

Winter slams her hands down on the arm of Jacques’s chair, “You are going to shut your mouth and get the heating grid up and running again.”

Jacques looks a bit panicked, “I… I’ve been informed that we can’t get into the system. It’s… it’s been blocked off.”

Ironwood looks down at his scroll when the councilman talks, “Without heat down there… people are going to die.”

I look down and back up, “I can get it to turn back on if you tell me where the main machine is.”

Ironwood looks my way. “I’ll send where it is through your scroll.”

I feel my scroll buzz and I open it while sending a message to Adrian:

Caiden: Meet me at the front doors, we have something to do.

As I start to walk out I hear Robyn say, “How do a disgraced scientist and a disappeared serial killer find each other, General? Why would they target you? Why are you working so hard to hide the Amity Communications Tower from them?”

As the doors shut behind me I hear Ironwood, “You know?”

I meet Adrian by the doors. “Let’s go!”  
We run outside and hop into a car, I get into the driver’s side and floor it as we drive to Atlas Academy.

“What is going on?” Adrian asks looking over my way.

I sigh as I look at the road. “Long story short, heating and Mantle went out, and we are going to save it.”

Adrian looks surprised. “Why would you need me?”

I smile. “Well I need a partner and no offense to Ray, but you would be way more qualified for this!”

Adrian laughs. “I feel there is more to the story than that.”

I sigh, “There is. Jacques is arrested, on that note, could you message Kyra and tell her Jacques is arrested, there is some man named Watts who rigged the election and shut down the heat, and that we are on our way to turn it back on?”

“Sure thing,” Adrian says as he takes out his scroll, but before he can do anything, my scroll starts to buzz, I pull out my scroll and throw it to Adrian.

“Answer it.”

I hear Kyra’s voice, “FUCK, CHAI, it’s WILD down here!” I hear a crashing sound in the distance, “What is going on up there?”

Adrian starts talking, “From what I have been told Jacques has been arrested for treason or something on those lines, a man named Watts shut down the heating system, he works for Salem. We are heading to get the heating system turned back on. FUCK FUCK CAIDEN TURN!”

I spin the wheel as we go skidding across the street, just in time to make the turn when Adrian sighs. “He also rigged the election.”

We hear more crashing noises in the distance before Kyra responds, “Did he happen to have a mustache?”

Adrian looks over to me and I nod. Adrian speaks again.

“Caiden says he did.”

“I’ve seen him before! He was on the computer when I used my semblance before! With Tyrian! Anyways!!! There is quite a lot of Grimm down here and-” we hear more crashing noises and the sound of the scroll dropping.

I look over to Adrian. “If I had to guess-”

Adrian screams, “EYES ON THE ROAD CAIDEN!”

I look forward again, “We are fine.”

Adrian frowns. “Please don’t sound like Kyra.”

We hear Kyra scream, “DON’T MAKE FUN OF ME WHEN I’M RIGHT HERE?”

We both laugh. “Are you alright?” I ask.

I hear the sound of the scroll being picked up and Kyra’s voice a bit calmer, “Yeah, just, like I said, Grimm problems down here in Mantle.”

“I’m sure General Ironwood is sending more people down there. Hang in there everyone,” I say as I come to a screeching halt when I see more cars, I groan.

“Yessir!” I hear Kyra say as she starts laughing, “I can’t believe I just said that. Anyways, I should go help the citizens!”

Kyra hangs up the call as I sigh. “What even is this? Get out of the car, we are running.” 

Adrian and I climb out of the car as we take off running to the Academy in the distance.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I swing my scythe around, cutting the Sabyrs in half. I sigh as I look over to Flame. “How many more are there?”

Flame looks back. “Way too many!”

We are still in front of the jewelry shop, not being able to do much as we have Grimm coming at us from both sides. I aim and pull the trigger on my gun, missing the Sabyrs by a millimeter. I clench my teeth together and transform Crystal Thorn to a buster sword as I swing it over my shoulder down onto the Sabyrs. I hear Flame scream at me, and I hold Crystal Thorn under my arm, in a very uncomfortable position as I pull the trigger and the Sabyr that was about to jump onto me, suddenly has a bullet lodged into its chest. I grab Crystal Thorn and start to swing it around in circles.

I look over to Flame as she is fighting off a group of Sabyrs as well. I transform Crystal Thorn back into a scythe as I put it behind me and pull the trigger a few times to propel me forward towards Flame, I hold my scythe out to the side and pull the trigger again to have it cut through another sabyr and shoot another one. 

I look over to Flame just as she kills the last one. “Where do we go now?”

I look back over at Luke as they walk over to us. I speak to them.

“We need to go.”

“Where do you think you guys are going?”

I look over Luke’s shoulder and see a man standing there, holding double daggers. “Who might you be?”

I look at him closer, those eyes, I’ve seen them before. Wait, wait- 

“You’re the guy who I punched in the bar!”

The guy lets out a laugh. “That you did, but sadly you won’t be getting away today, such a shame really.”

Luke looks between us. “What do you want, brother.”

The guy steps forward, “Well you see, my dear brother, I was hired to kill this young lady here, she’s been real hard to catch you know. But when I saw you were here with her, I was so happy! We can finally have the reunion we deserve.”

Luke steps forward. “You are no brother to me, you lost that title the minute you stabbed me.”

The guy smirks. “You should look up to me more you know, I would love to have you on my side.”

Before Luke can respond, a realization hits me. “I HAVE A SERIAL KILLER AFTER ME?!”

Luke’s brother bursts out laughing. “Why yes you do, Ms. Baki. I’m so happy you are here with my brother since he won’t accept my invitation, I want to see you both suffer.”

What is this man’s problem with me? Well. Minus the whole killing me thing. There’s that.

Flame steps forward. “You are outnumbered pretty heavily, how do you plan to deal with that? It would be in your best interest to run.”

He smirks. “I won’t be that outnumbered, will I? There’s already more Grimm behind you, so come on Luke, let’s finish what we started before I kill your little friend over there.”


	12. 11

I look down at the map as Adrian and I fly up the stairs of Atlas Academy. Why didn’t we take the elevator? This night isn’t near close to over and I’m already exhausting myself, I turn around to talk to Adrian as I run into someone and hear a loud, “WHAT THE FUCK!”

I fall back a few stairs as I grab the girl’s hand. “I’m so sorry- I would apologize more but we really have to go!”

The girl frowns. “Where are you going?”

I look to Adrian and he shrugs, “The heating room, listen, we really have to go.”

“Did Ironwood fuck up again?” The girl says, “Here, I know where it is at, follow me, my name is Wisteria.”

We start to run up the stairs again. “I’m Caiden, and this is Adrian. You look like a student, how do you know where these are?”

I can feel Wisteria’s smirk even from behind her. “Ironwood’s security isn’t perfect, are you guys with Ironwood?”

Adrian says from behind me, “None of your business.”

I frown. “Technically, yes. There is a whole group of us who came in, got picked up, and now we are helping him.”

Wisteria nods as she stops on a floor that has two security guards on each side of the door, I pull up my ID and show the guards as it allows us through, Wisteria looks up at me in awe.

I make a motion forward and Wisteria runs ahead of us.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We are all in an airship flying down towards Mantle, or what I hope is left of Mantle. From what I can tell, this place is overrun with Grimm currently. I feel the ship shake violently as I turn my head around to see a Teryx on the front of the ship. I run over to Ray and put a hand on her shoulder, “This is going just great isn’t it?”

Ray laughs, “It seems absolutely everything goes how we want it.”

I smile and laugh back when we hear Marrow yell, “Hang on!”

The ship starts to spin as Harriet tries to shake the Teryx off. Ray looks to me.

“This is still going great, isn’t it, Sandra?”

I smile at Ray before looking ahead when Harriet yells, “I can’t shake it!”

The ship shakes even harder again as we all hear an explosion, yeah, this is really going great! 

I see that the Teryx has taken a chunk off the wing when Marrow yells, “I don’t think we’re staying airborne!”

Qrow starts to move towards the door. “It’s time to go.”

Clover walks to the other side of Qrow. “You have your team assignments.”

Ray nods as she runs over to the side Qrow is on. I look over and find Cadmium, I smile at him as I jump out of the ship and start falling through the air down to Mantle.

As I am falling I look around, Grimm are storming the streets, people are panicking, this is just what Salem wants. She now has an opening.

I hook my scythe on a pole as I drop to the ground, Cadmium not far behind me. I turn around to see him chugging a red bull and I roll my eyes, “Hey Cad, we have to, you know, go save people.”

As Cad finished he yells, “COME GET ME, FUCKERS!”

Cad smiles like he never screamed anything and runs up next to me, “Lead the way then.”

I run forward as we see a group of Sabyrs running towards us. I spin my scythe around and start slashing it around into the Sabyrs. I hear the pops of a gun go off behind me as I turn around to see Cadmium shooting the Sabyrs that approach him.

I run back over to him as I transform my scythe into a gun form and start shooting the Sabyrs that are running up from behind us.

Eventually, I groan. “This is going to be a long night.”

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I look to Luke and he gives me a nod, I turn around and start to ready myself for the Sabyrs that are running towards us.

From behind me I hear, “Why couldn’t you just have let me live my life, Paul?”

I throw my scythe over my shoulder, bringing it down onto a Grimm as I hear Paul’s response, “What’s the fun in that?”

I hear the clanging of two pieces of metal behind me when I hear Flame’s voice from my side, “Go help Luke, we’ll hold off the Grimm.”

I nod as I turn around and see Luke’s brother. “You’re here to fight me too? I was enjoying just getting to fight my brother one on one again, it was just getting interesting.”

I look at Luke and he shakes his head, “I have this, Kyra.”

I shrug as I look back at the Grimm. “Kind of stuck, currently.”

I squint my eyes at the man in front of me, then I smile. “It’s on bud, let’s go.”

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I open the room that controls the heat in Mantle, I look around to see all the employees are gone. I frown as I look to Wisteria and Adrian. “Well, this is odd.”

Adrian nods. “Be on your guard, we don’t want to get jumped or anything.”

I walk over to the computer and sit down in the chair and look up at the computer, “This might take me a minute, there is a password, and I need to hack it instead of using my semblance because that would cost us even more time, wait, didn’t Ironwood say Watts was locking us out?”

Adrian nods and Wisteria just looks almost a bit confused. I sigh as I put my hand on the machine and send it a command. “There we go, it let us in. Now let’s see if I can get the heating back on in Mantle before everyone freezes to death.”

Wisteria looks out the door. “How did I get wrapped up in this?”

Adrian looks to me, then back to Wisteria. “By showing us where this was at so we could get here faster. I hate to say it, but it’s too late to go back now.”

Wisteria rolls her eyes. “I don’t regret my choice. This sounds like utter chaos and I love it.”

Adrian sighs. “This is much bigger than you think it is, Wisteria. Much, much bigger.”

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I kill another Sabyr as I see a screen flicker to life, displaying Ironwood and Robyn, what are they doing?

“Atlas, Mantle. I know you’re scared. I’m here with General Ironwood, and we have a message for you.”

Is he doing it?

“What he has to say may sound unbelievable… but it is all true.”

I glance at Cadmium and he looks back at me. 

“He’s going to do it isn’t he?” Cad says.

I nod my head, “I think he is.”

“An ancient and terrible evil lies outside our kingdom. It was responsible for the destruction of Beacon, the attack on Haven, and the recent attacks on Mantle. This powerful force goes by the name of Salem.”

“Yeah, he’s doing it,” Cad says from beside me. As Cad finishes we see a group of Beowolves come barreling down the street. I turn and start to shoot at them as Cad does as well.

“Salem seeks only to divide us. To turn us against each other. If she can incite hatred in us, this will lure in the Grimm and destroy ourselves.”

I take a moment to reload my gun and transform the gun back into a scythe as I spin in over my shoulder and onto a Grimm.

I see Robyn’s face flicker into the screen, “Salem herself does not work alone. Her minions have invaded our very city.”

A Grimm jumps up at me from behind, I swing my scythe backward, and the blade on the end cuts through the Grimm with ease.

“Arthur Watts and Tyrian Callows. These men are the ones responsible for the recent murders in Mantle and for sabotaging the heating grid.”

I see a bullet come flying past me and it finds itself lodged deep into the last Beowolf. I turn to the screen again.

“But we cannot let ourselves give in to fear and panic. That is what she wants!” Ironwood pauses for a brief moment. “Instead, we must unite, and fight back, together. Every single one of us!”

We here shouts coming from across the city and I turn to Cad and smile, “It seemed his speech worked, maybe one good thing happened tonight.”

Cad laughs. “I wouldn’t call this a good thing just yet.”

Ironwood continues, “This, my friends, is why I was forced to divert resources from Mantle- for the Amity Communication Tower. Amity Tower is now completed and ready to launch. It will re-establish all global communications.”

Cad snorts from beside me. “I call bullshit on that one.”

I laugh just as Ironwood continues, “Because the safety of every citizen is imperative, the council and I have decided to evacuate everyone in Mantle to Atlas. I am withdrawing all defenses from Amity in order to assist with repelling the Grimm in Mantle.”

I hear more cheers from around us when Robyn speaks, “We must put aside our differences and band together to defeat this threat. I fully support General Ironwood’s plan!”

I see a manta land in the nearest LZ pad and I run over to it, yelling for everyone to get in, all the citizens nearby hop in. Cad and I jump onto the ship as we fly up to Atlas.

I sigh as I lean against the wall. “Ironwood has some sense in him finally.”

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As Ironwood finishes I glance back to Paul, then to Luke.

“Well, that’s a thing,” I say as I see Paul charge at me, I duck under him as I feel someone grab my shoulder. I look to my side and see Flame.

“Do you trust me?” She asks.

I nod, “Of course I trust you, what do you have in mind?”

Flame tilts her head to the street behind her, “We need to go.”

“What?” I say as I look back at Luke, Maddy, and Mira.

“They have it handled, we need to go.”

I look to Flame and back at them and nod as Flame and I start to run down the street, getting away from Paul.

“What are we doing, Flame?”

“Saving the goddamn world, that’s what,” she says, “But seriously, we should help with evacuating Mantle. We still want our Aura’s to be in check for later.”

“For later?”

Flame nods. “This is about to be one long night.”

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From atop the roof us three are standing on, we see Tyrian appear and say, “Robyn Hill. For such a little bird, you have quite the impact around here!”

Robyn fires at Tyrian and I am about to jump down when a hand stops me and tells me to wait.

“Bringing hope and a smile wherever you go! I find it,” he pauses, “Upsetting.”

Tyrian starts to laugh as he starts to run for Robyn. Just as he is about to get to Robyn, I see Clover cast his line.Tyrian knocks it away and looks around, “Huh?”

The other two jump down, while I stay on the roof. Being backup sure is fun, especially when they’ve probably got it under control.

Plus side: I get to see Team LGBT in action: Team Let’s Go Beat Tyrian. So there is that!

“Sorry Callows, I really wanted to pummel you on my own, but the General insisted I share.”

They all walk forward when Clover says, “Well, you’re not that only one with a grudge.”

Qrow aims his gun at Tyrian. “You’ll both have to get in line.”

On the roof, I unsheathe my polearm and set it across my lap to wait. This is going to be fun.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“I got it!” I yell as I start to click on the keys to turn the heating grid back on, “Now, let’s hope that it works!”

I click a few more buttons as they start to flash. “Adrian! See if it’s working!”

I hear Adrian pull out his scroll and I hear Kyra’s voice a moment later, “What is it?”

“Is the heat back on?” Adrian asks.

Kyra pauses for a moment. “I think so, but we all know I probably have no clue.”

In the background we hear Flame yell, “It is definitely back on!”

I sigh and stand up, but then sit back down. “Honestly, since they are evacuating Mantle, I doubt we can get down there.” I pull out my own scroll. “Let’s just wait for orders on what to do.”

“But that’s no fun!” Wisteria says as she sighs.


	13. 12

“Hurry! Everyone, get onto the airship!” I yell as I’m waving my arm towards the ship. People file onto the ship. I use my earpiece to talk to Flame.

“How is it going over there?”

As the last of the people file in, I turn around and walk over to sit in the co-pilot seat.

“We are on our way up to Atlas,” I hear Flame say as we lift off.

I nod and put my comms on Caiden, “Hey, what are you guys doing?”

I hear Caiden respond, “Waiting for some sort of orders.”

That is what I was hoping, “You think you could go to where they are dropping off the people of Mantle and help sort out that mess? I bet it would also be soothing to have some huntsmen around. Also, we are heading there now.”

“Yeah, we can do that. Better than just sitting here.”

“Thanks.”

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Tyrian Callows, you’re under arrest,” Clover says. All their weapons are pointed at Tyrian. I adjust myself a bit more to stay out of sight as I watch.

Tyrian starts to let out this sickening laugh. Qrow charges forward with his sword and Tyrian blocks it with his blades, though he goes flying into the wall. Qrow runs forward and slashes his sword at him again, but Tyrian falls to the ground and tries to kick Qrow’s feet out from under him.  
I shift, ready to jump down when Qrow jumps over Tyrian’s leg. Tyrian gets up and turns around to charge at Qrow to stab him. Qrow holds up his sword with ease to block Tyrians blow then quickly slashes at him. Tyrian blocks and runs to the side a bit and jumps into the air and comes down at Qrow with both of his weapons. Qrow flips his sword up, and Tyrian’s weapon hits the sword. Tyrian looks frustrated and he shots to propel himself backward.

Tyrian instantly regains balance and comes charging at Qrow with more speed than he seemed to have before. I look over to Clover who then casts his line and it hooks with Tyrian’s blade and he pulls it back. Tyrian looks behind him and Robyn shoots off an arrow, just barely missing his face. Tyrian throws his head in Robyn’s direction when Qrow’s fist meets Tyrian’s right eye. Tyrian stumbles backward.

Tyrian is so getting his ass kicked right now, I might not even need to help. Honestly, the only thing keeping me from taking a video is the fact that this is supposed to be kept quiet. And if I just keep the video to myself… I pull out my scroll and start recording. Too bad I didn’t have this idea sooner.

Qrow then proceeds to knee Tyrian in the chest while turning his sword in his hand and slams the hilt into him. Tyrian looks over to Qrow and Robyn and then gives one creepy-ass smile to Qrow.

He starts running towards Clover while firing his guns at Qrow, who uses his sword to block all the bullets coming his way. Tyrian leaps up and slashes at Clover who holds up Kingfisher and steps to the side. Tyrian continues to slash at Clover with his weapons, Clover leans backward and grabs the hook of his weapon and he maneuvers his pole to have the hook loop around Tyrian’s arm. Clover then backs up a bit and pulls on it.

Hm, got to give him credit for that one. It feels like I’m watching a movie, but this is so not a movie. This is very, very real. And badass.

Qrow jumps in and slashes at Tyrian’s chest, but Tyrian blocks with the weapon in his free arm. Such a shame.

Qrow then punches Tyrian in the face, and Tyrian looks away. Tyrian jumps into the air and kicks both Clover and Qrow in the face. Ouch.

I see Robyn move, ready to fire again. She fires a shot at him, though Tyrian swipes the arrow away with his tail. Tyrian then turns to Robyn and looks pretty ready to charge at her. I stand up ready to jump down and help her when Clover hooks the line of Kingfisher around his tail. Oh, well, I guess my time hasn’t come yet.

Tyrian falls to the ground and Qrow starts to swing his sword at him, and Tyrian starts to dodge them in a variety of ways. Qrow throws his sword in the air, and Tyrian looks up to watch it. Seeing Tyrian is distracted, Qrow kicks Tyrian in the back of the head. 

Tyrian falls backward and he rolls and gets into his feet. Qrow swings at Tyrian a few times and Tyrian dodges them. When Qrow sees an opening, he kicks Tyrian in the gut and shoves the barrel of his gun in his stomach and shoots.

When Tyrian falls back down, Qrow kicks him to the side to where Clover and Robyn are waiting. That man must be running low on aura, right?

Clover throws gravity bolas and it wraps around Tyrian’s legs. In this tangle of a mess, Tyrians cause himself to get even more tangled. This guy is… I have no words.

Tyrian screams in, I don’t know if it is pain, or just him being a maniac but he hops away from Clover and starts to spin frantically to get the cords untangled. Damn, I really thought that was the end of him.

He sways to the side and starts to laugh the same sickening laugh. Robyn fires another shot and Tyrian catches it in his teeth, what the fuck?

The arrow begins flashing red and blows up. Geez, that sounds like Kyra right there. Blowing shit up. I hop down as Tyrian falls down to the ground in a daze. I hear Tyrian still laughing and Robyn kicks him in the face.

“Where’s that smile now?”

I walk over to Robyn and give her a fist bump, “Good work.”

I hear Clover from behind us, “This is Clover. Requesting prisoner transport.”

Robyn smiles. “He deserved every bit of it.”

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As we land I stand up and walk over to open the doors. “Please exit the ship and wait till further instruction.”

Everyone files off the ship and I soon follow. I glance around until I see Caiden, Adrian, and some new girl. I smile and take off in their direction. I run up and hug Caiden, spinning us around.

“Hey!”

“Holy… shit.” The new girl says.

“Huh? What was that?” I say towards the new girl.

“Nothing,” the girl says as she looks anywhere but my eyes.

“This is Wisteria, she helped us find the heating room in a timely manner,” Caiden says.  
I smile. “Oh! Hello, my name is Kyra Baki.”

Wisteria looks up again, but yet again, not meeting my eyes. “Kyra, I think I’ve seen you on the news a few times.”

I laugh. “So I’ve heard I’ve been on it a few times, once for kicking Ice Queen’s ass in a fight.”

Just as Caiden is about to say something, Flame runs up behind us.

“Hey Flame!” I say, “We are just catching up. Oh, this is Wisteria.”

Wisteria waves and Flame turns back to us. “You are catching up in the middle of all of this?”

“Yup!” I say while popping the P, “let me see-”

Just as I was about to say something I see a message come up on my scroll from Ironwood about some meeting.

“Well… Ironwood just called all of us back for a meeting.” I say.

Flame frowns suspiciously. “Can you use your semblance?”

I shrug. “I could… but I don’t think this night is over yet, and I don’t want to take my chances with being blind all night.”

“You? Don’t want to take your chances?” Caiden snorts. “I wish I could have recorded that.”

I hit Caiden playfully on the arm before I look to the ground and back up at everyone. 

“You all stay here, I’ll go,” I turn around and tap my earpiece, “I’ll keep in touch.”

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I continue to slash at Paul, and he blocks, and counterattacks.

Paul throws his knives above me, and it is going to come down hard from above. I jump backward out of the way and yell back.

“How is it going?”

I swing my scythe over my shoulder and it catches on Paul’s knives when I hear, “All the Grimm are about cleared!”

I turn around to look at Paul. “Looks like it won’t be a 1 on 1 for very much longer.”

Paul laughs and throws his knife over my shoulder, my eyes follow the knife till I see it bounce off Maddy’s heel. Maddy turns around and starts running for Paul. I turn around and swing my scythe to the side.

“You can hurt me, but do not hurt my friends.”

Paul laughs again. “But isn’t that what I was trained to do?”

Maddy’s sword comes flying down towards Luke’s shoulder and Luke uses the knife in his left hand to block it. He blocks my scythe blade with the knife in his right hand. Luke jumps up and kicks both of us back.

Mira runs up to stand by us. “All the Grimm are gone.”

I nod and we all run after Paul. I swing my scythe under my shoulder and up towards Paul while Maddy strikes at him from behind. To avoid my attack, he falls into Maddy’s sword and groans as his aura flickers.

He turns to Maddy and starts to swing his knives towards her, which she does her best to defend. I look to Mira. She pulls the trigger on her knife and it shoots a bullet towards Paul, who turns around just in time to block the bullet, throws a knife at Mira and she ducks as it goes flying into the alleyway behind her.

Paul turns towards Mira and starts to run towards her, I run over to her and swing my scythe and he blocks in as he ducks down and slides to the alleyway. We all run after him and see him in the alleyway just as he picks up his knife.

I hold up my weapons again and start running at him, Maddy and Mira follow behind me. I duck down and slide so I am behind him and swing my scythe up and over my shoulder to bring it down on him.

He has Mira and Maddy’s weapons blocked with his knife as his aura flickers, then shatters. He slumps a bit as Mira and Maddy pull their weapons away.

I look over to Paul as Maddy grabs her gravity bolas as Paul suddenly regains his composure and starts to jump, ready to swing at Maddy while she can’t protect herself.

I run up behind him and swing my scythe over my shoulder and propel him forward with it so he misses Maddy.

We all look at him laying in the street, a gash on his back just spewing blood. The blood pools into the street. I hold my weapon out to see the same blood is on the blade of my weapon. My stomach lurches as we all run over to him.

I look down at Paul, and he looks back up at me. “You’ve improved.”

I sigh in relief. “I have to, I have people to protect.”

I turn away and look to Maddy and Mira. “We need to get back up to Atlas. I’ve got better things to do than wait for him to die.”

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I run into General Ironwood’s’office and Team RWBY follows behind Vine, Harriet, Elm, and Marrow. Oh, this is going to be good. I click my earpiece on.

“General Ironwood,” Harriet says.

Ironwood turns his chair to face all of us. “We have made a critical error.”

He places a black queen onto his desk. I frown as I look at the black queen, but don’t ask any questions.

“The Black Queen was the symbol Salem showed us before we lost everything Her way of telling us she was inside. That it was too late. We stopped Watts. We stopped Callows, but someone was here. They put this in my office to tell me that,” he pauses mid-sentence as a certain realization passes over his face, “What if Mantle was just a distraction? What if it was to draw us away from the academy to, to-”

Weiss steps in. “Sir. I-It’s going to be okay. We’ve got Mantle on our side now. And-”

“How do we know that wasn’t a part of their plan?” He slams his fist on the desk and stands up. The tension in this room is rising by the minute, “How do we know they didn’t want us to bring people into Atlas by the thousands?”

Good point, I will say that much, but we already started.

“In trying to save everyone, we left ourselves most vulnerable,” Vine says.

“Salem has been one step ahead of us this entire time!” He once again slams his fist against the desk, he’s going to need a new desk, but that is probably the least of his worries right now, and probably should be the least of mine too. 

The glass piece falls over and rolls forward.

“It’s… glass,” Ruby says with caution, “Black glass. This was Cinder.”

Yang’s eyes widen. “She’s alive? She’s here?!”

Ironwood sighs. “If Cinder’s here, then for all we know, Hazel’s here too!”

I sigh and step forward. “Let’s not jump to conclusions without proof, don’t freak yourself out even more.”

Ironwood was about to respond to me when Blake says, “Sir, this isn’t over yet. We’re with you.”

Ironwood looks at Team RWBY, then over to me, “Are you with me?”

Oh shit, this man actually has gone crazy.

“Sir?” Vine says from across the room. This man has the audacity to question if we are with him after everything we’ve done to help him? Especially Team RWBY.

Blake looks startled and steps back with her ears folded over, I walk over to Blake and put a hand on her shoulder.

“How did Robyn know about the Global Communications Project?”

Ah, yes. One of the many questions this world has that is only being brought up now, brilliant.

Yang looks to Blake then steps forward. “We told her,” she pauses a moment, “The night of the ambush.”

Ironwood narrows his eyes at Yang when Elm speaks, “You did what?!”

“We were trying to help.”

I turn to Marrow as he speaks, “By going behind our backs?”

Harriet walks over to Yang, “Wait. Does that mean you let her escape?”

Yang looks more confident than she did before, “Robyn is on our side!” She pauses for another moment before saying in a softer tone, “She always has been.”

Ironwood looks at Yang. “We didn’t know that for sure.”

I see Weiss grab her head and I step forward, “We know nothing is for sure! We only can go by our instincts! Just because you might not see her as trust-worthy doesn’t mean we can’t!”

“None of this matters right now!” Weiss exclaims.

“Loyalty always matters!”

Suddenly a red, Grimm looking thing, with long uh, limbs? Coming out of it springs out of the bag. This is great, WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS THING?!

Everyone steps back, their eyes wide and General Ironwood backs himself into a wall.

“General Ironwood.”

Ah fuck, this is Salem, I’ve heard that voice tell them to go to Atlas before. Ah fuck, fuck, fuck, SHES HERE?! Oh wait, wasn’t that the point of this whole argument we were having?

The uh Grimm thing tense up and curl and it lets out a high-pitched scream as the head cracks, red smoke emerging from it. The uh, Grimm falls off the desk and rolls onto the floor, I back up a bit.

“The brave Huntsmen and Huntresses who bested Arthur Watts. Congratulations.”

Ruby steps forward, no fear visibly showing on her, “We stopped Tyrian, too. We’ll stop Cinder, and anyone else you try to send here.”

“Dear girl, their goal was never victory. It was merely to set the stage.”

Well, shit.

“For that?” Ironwood asks from his little corner over there.

Salem turns her head to Ironwood and smiles this creepily sweet smile, “For me.”

Double shit.

“Time isn’t on your side, James. It’s always been on mine.”

Ironwood watches Salem approach him with wide eyes, full of fear.

“The people of Atlas have suffered enough. Surrender the Staff and the Lamp to me, and they needn’t suffer any further.”

Ironwood lowers his gun. “That isn’t going to happen.”

Well, at least he is being reasonable in that sense.

Salem leans down to look right into his eyes, honestly, if I was in his situation and had her right in my face, I would probably be a bit scared too.

“Simply accept the futility of your situation, and this can all be over.”

Ruby looks between Salem and Ironwood, “We’ve seen what you’re capable of. The lamp showed us,” Salem turns to look at Ruby and starts heading to the middle of the room again, “It showed us everything. We’ve seen that you can’t be killed. But we’ve also seen you fail.”

Wait, what? She is immortal? Ruby and I are going to have a conversation later about this.

“We don’t have to kill you to stop you, and we will stop you.” Show her who’s boss.

Salem smiles to Ruby. “Your mother said those words to me.”

Ruby pauses for a moment. “My… mother?”

Ruby closes her eyes as tears start to stream down her face when Salem continues, “She was wrong too.”

Salem looks over in my direction as she smirks towards me. Ugh, what does she want with me?

Ruby’s eyes flash silver a few times as she drops to her knees and cries. I step back a bit more to give them some space. Salem disappears and Marrow speaks.

“That’s Salem?! That’s who we’re up against?!”

Harriet goes next, “And she’s apparently on her way.”

I hear a voice in my ear from Flame. “You need to get out of there.” 

“But we’d be alerted if any forces had approached the kingdom. We have long-range proximity alarms all along the coast, and-” Elm starts to say.

“They’re offline. With all of the chaos, we didn’t notice,” Vine says as he puts his scroll away.

Brilliant, just brilliant.

“Watts must have shut them down!” Marrow exclaims.

We all look to Ironwood when we hear his voice, “Or they’ve already been destroyed.”

Ironwood walks over to the window and looks outside when Elm speaks.

“What? All of them?”

Blake looks up, “You said in your speech that Amity Tower was ready to launch. Was that true?”

“Kyra… get out of there,” Flame says again in my ear.

Yang looks at Ironwood and stands up. “No. You just said that… to lure out Watts.”

“General Ironwood?” Weiss says carefully.

“I sent your sister to claim the power of the Winter Maiden.”

That is my cue to leave. I pretend to hear something in my earpiece as I walk to the door and open it when Elm turns around. “Where are you going?”

I tap my earpiece, “I just got some information from my team that I have to go deal with. I’m sure you will all inform me if I need to do anything.”

I smile sweetly, but when the door closes behind me, the smile instantly falls off my face as I start to run where everyone else is.

When I arrive there I see Flame have a grave-looking face on her, Caiden looks concerned, and Wisteria, well, looks more than confused.

I run up, “You heard all of that?”

Everyone nods and I pull out my scroll and go to message everyone when I get a call from Jaune. I answer the call.

“It’s Jaune! We’ve got a serious problem!”

All of us look at each other and a moment passes by when we hear Ruby’s frantic voice, “Ironwood’s declaring Martial Law and abandoning Mantle! Salem is coming and he’s going to use the Staff to move Atlas. If we don’t stop him, then Mantle’s going to be des-”

“What?” Caiden exclaims, “Ironwood can not be fucking serious?”

I look down at my scroll and see big bold letters that say ‘LOCKED’ on them.

I look to Flame and she looks back at me, “You know where the vault is, right?”

I nod. “He went down there once when I was spying on him.”

“You, spied on the General?” Wisteria asks.

I glance at Wisteria and nod before looking to Flame. “What did you have in mind?”

Flame looks at me and then back at Caiden. Flame walks over to my side and glances in the direction of the academy. “Caiden, find everyone else and make sure they are okay, and get the hell away from all the soldiers. Kyra and I are going to the vault.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to the almost end? Yeah.. we'll go with that.


	14. 13

Flame and I run through the halls of Atlas Academy.

“Flame! Seriously!! Wait. UP!!”

I run next to Flame and she glares at me. “Keep it down.”

From behind us we hear, “Stop! You’re under arrest.”

I turn around and yell at them, “Bullshit!”

We turn the corner and I turn quickly and grab Flame’s wrist and pull her inside. The soldiers run past us and we run back out. 

“Hurry. Let’s go.”

I lead Flame to the elevator and tap in a code. The elevator starts to go down. I lean against the bar and Flame looks out. 

Once the elevator pulls out into the vault area, Ironwood turns around and frowns. I walk forward and squint my eyes at him. This man has zero emotion in his eyes as he looks at us.

When we get to the bottom, we approach Ironwood, before anyone can say anything I ask, “What the fuck are you doing? Abandoning Mantle?”

Ironwood looks between the both of us, “Sometimes the right thing is also the hardest decision.”

“Bullshit,” I say as I step towards Ironwood, no intention to fight him. “You are leaving millions to die, what kind of leader leaves their own people to die. You aren’t being smart, you’re being a coward, running away from your problems. We’ll all scared, but we don’t have a choice, we can’t just abandon the people counting on us to keep them safe.”

“You think I’m scared?” Ironwood says looking at me.

“We’re all scared, it’s what you do in your fear that makes you who you are.”

Ironwood frowns and steps towards Flame and I. 

“That’s easy for you to say,” he starts to walk towards us again and Flame steps in front of me.

“Stop.”

Ironwood stops and frowns at Flame, I walk to the side to go around her when Flame grabs my wrist and holds me back. I frown.

“I’m not letting you escape with the relics and Atlas.”

Ironwood grabs his gun, but doesn’t seem to have the intention to shoot, yet.

“You think you can stop me?”

Flame grabs her own weapon and I get my wrist away from Flame and step between them. “We don’t have to fight!”

Flame sighs. “Kyra, he isn’t going to change his mind.”

Ironwood speaks as he points his gun at us. “Flame’s right, I’m not changing my mind.”

Flame’s eyes turn blue and she starts to hover above the ground, maiden eyes. Well, fake maiden eyes.

“Flame?” Ironwood says, still pointing his gun at her.

“My friends call me Flame. To you, it’s your Grace.”

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Clover and Robyn’s scrolls ring. And through the back I see mugshots of all of us, well my group, Team RWBY, Team JNOR, and Qrow.

Qrow frowns at Clover, “Clover…”

Clover puts his scroll away, “Qrow, Ray, you should know that I’ve been asked to bring you in.”

“Aren’t we already on a prisoner transport?” I ask and Robyn snorts.

From the side of us, we hear Tyrian laugh, “A free ride, and a show!” I almost stand up to go slap that bitch when Robyn puts a hand on my shoulder and shakes my head. I sit down again with a huff.

Clover continues, “There’s also an alert out for Team RWBY, Team JNOR, and whatever you guys called your group.”

“We didn’t,” I say unhelpfully. “There’s like eight of us, we didn’t have time to come up with a name. Too much work.” 

Qrow frowns even more, “What? Has James lost his mind?”

“Probably,” I whisper under my breath and Robyn smiles at me.

Robyn stands up. “He’s trying to stop anybody who might get in the way of this inhumane plan.” 

Robyn holds out her crossbow and Clover speaks, “Only-”

Robyn shoots off her crossbow and Clover draws Kingfisher when Qrow says, “Cut it out! Both of you!”

“It’s taking a very long time for this show to get to the good part!” Tyrian laughs, and this time I do get up and go slap that bitch. Tyrian frowns then smiles at me. Just, just, why.

Qrow looks to Tyrian and I. “Shut up, and Ray, sit down.”

Robyn speaks from in front of me, “Right, let’s get this over with.”

Qrow sighs again. “ROBYN! Stop being impulsive!”

Robyn fires another shot that Clover deflects that flies back and knocks Tyrian’s… shit.

“No!” I scream as Tyrian runs to the front of the airship. 

I grab my polearm and run to the front where he has already hijacked this ship.

“What the fuck are you doing!” I scream at Tyrian.

“The will of our goddess!”

With that, he grabs the control stick and jerks it down and the ship starts flying towards the ground. I run to the back of the ship where Clover has opened a door and jumped out. Qrow runs out and jumps out after him. But before I can… hey, heat tolerance is actually good for something in Atlas!

The plane slams into the ground and I groan as I put a hand to my face and wipe any snow, or dust off my face as I look around and see Robyn knocked out. I run over to Robyn as I hear those two lovebirds talking behind me. Well, who knows if they are actually lovebirds, but Kyra insists that they are, so I’m going with it.

“Clover..” Qrow says as he holds up Harbinger with one hand.

Clover holds Kingfisher in a defensive stance as well, “We don’t have to fight, Qrow.”

“I have to get back to the kids.”

“And you will,” Clover says while pausing and looking down. “After we figure out how to get back.”

Qrow drops Harbinger so he is holding it at his side, “What?”

Clover then lowers his arm as well. “I never said I wanted to arrest you, you only assumed I did. Some things, some things are more important than following orders. I’ve had a lot of time to think about what I would do if an order came through I didn’t completely agree with.”

I grab Robyn and lean her up against the ship and look back to see Tyrian approaching with that sickening grin of his. Clover and Qrow both turn to look at him.

“Oh, don’t stop on my account.”

Clover runs over to Qrow’s side as they both look towards Tyrian, and Qrow speaks “Just. Give. Up.”

“You have no aura, and our auras are mostly intact,” Clover adds.

Tyrian rolls his eyes and Qrow runs forward and swings at Tyrian. With the third swing Qrow makes, Tyrian does a backflip out of the way. I go to stand up and I grunt as I grab my side. I’m in no fighting condition now, especially against someone like Tyrian, even if it would be a 3 v 1.

One thing leads to another. One moment, Qrow is attacking Tyrian, who takes a hit and slides behind me. The next, there’s a blade pressed to the back of my neck.

I still have some aura. But that won’t do shit. Not with Tyrian’s semblance. In short… fuck.

“I’d be careful if I were you,” Tyrian says all too cheerfully. “You wouldn’t want me to… slip.”  
\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We see a ship start to land in the shipyard. We have already found some of the other teams and gave them instructions on where everyone is going to meet up.

“Does this mean I’m a criminal now?” Wisteria asks as we keep our heads down as we walk towards the ship.

“No, but yes,” Adrian says from the other side of me, “You aren’t on the list, but you’d be arrested anyways because you were helping us.”

“I’ve never been a criminal!” Wisteria exclaims.

We approach the ship and I see Luke and his team exiting. I wave to them and look to Wisteria. “You don’t want to be a criminal. It’s overrated.”

Luke, Mira, and Maddy run down to us. “What is going on?”

I hear soldiers pushing through some people and I turn in the direction I sent everyone else, “We need to go, now. Explain later.”

We all start running in the direction I sent everyone else. When we arrive I drop to the ground and heave. Before getting back up and cracking a grin.

“Oh no, you are starting to act like Kyra,” Sandra says, “So what’s happening?”

I nod, “If you haven’t noticed, we all have arrest warrants out for us. Kyra and Flame went to the academy to head to the vault. You guys stay together and stay out of sight for now. I’m not sure there’s much else you could do. Adrian, Wisteria, and I are going to go find Kyra.”

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Flame throws off her coat and turns it inside out. It’s black on the other side, with a symbol in red. I’ve seen that symbol before… where? Wait… That’s Salem’s symbol?

“What?” I scream as I pull out Crystal Thorn. “Someone needs to explain what is happening to me right now!”

“Salem,” Ironwood says as he shoots at Flame. Flame shoots back at Ironwood and I just stand there watching both of them run around the platform, too shocked to do anything.

My eyes dart between Flame and Ironwood shooting at each other when Flame turns back and yells at me, “I’m the same person you’ve been with all along! We still have the same goals!”

I look to Ironwood and he shoots at me. I sigh and run towards him with Crystal Thorn in hand. I flick the switch and my weapon turns into a buster sword, I run up and swing it over my shoulder and he steps out of the way. I roll to the side and hear two shots. One where my previous position was, and one Flame shot at Ironwood that hit.

I quickly change Crystal Thorn into a scythe and split it into chakrams. I walk up and smack Ironwood’s face with the handle chakram. He points the gun at my chest and I duck under and roll to the side, hitting him again with the handle chakram just as Flame shoots again, and because he is distracted with me, it hits him, and his aura shatters.

I put my weapon back into a scythe and point it at Ironwood as Flame walks towards him. Flame points her weapon at Ironwood and I yell.

“Flame! Don’t kill him!”

Flame looks to me. “He needs to die, but, maybe I could make an exception. Flame walks around to the other side of Ironwood. “You know all you and Ozpin have been doing is delaying the coming of a better world by denying Salem the relics. If you would just give in, no one would have to die. It’s not our fault all of these people are dying, their blood is on your hands. You want to leave them to suffer and die.”

Ironwood looks ready to say something when Flame hits him in the side of the head with her staff. “Salem would never kill all of Mantle, she’s better than that. She’d prefer not to kill anyone, but as I said earlier, it’s because of Ozpin, and people like you that we have to kill people.”

I slowly lower my weapon as Flame lectures Ironwood, about the good of Salem. Flame stops in front of Ironwood. “I can’t have you stand in my way.”

I start to run towards Flame as she puts a finger on his chest and shoots earth dust out of it. Ironwood’s eyes open wide as he falls to the ground, the life leaving his eyes, very quickly.

“Flame! We didn’t have to kill him!” I say as I look at his lifeless body. Flame smiles as she pulls out her scroll and takes a few pictures. 

She then rolls him off the edge and turns back to me and smiles. “For the better.”

I throw my hands up in the air, “How was that for the better! You.. you murdered him!”

Flame sighs. “It is what needed to happen.”

I grab Crystal Thorn. “For what? For Salem’s delusional plans?”

“Hardly delusional.” Flame looks to me, then to the edge she’d kicked Ironwood off of. “What I was explaining to Ironwood was Salem’s goal, and she can achieve it most easily by possessing at least one Relic, ideally several of them,” she pauses a moment to look at me to make sure I’m paying attention, “However, she does not currently have any.”

“And she shouldn’t have any,” I growl.

Flame seems to ignore my comment. “So long as Ozpin has them all, even if not on him, but under his control, the world is not safe,” she pauses again for a moment, “Ozpin wants to bring the gods back to a positive judgment. So while Salem doesn’t have any of the Relics, the only other way to prevent them from being brought together is to make sure that if they were united, the gods wouldn’t give that positive judgment Ozpin wants.”

“Positive judgment?” I ask. “What do you mean?”

Flame nods. “If all four relics are brought together, it will summon the gods for judgment. If they find mankind to their liking, they will stay. If they do not, they will kill everyone. It’s hard to say which of these outcomes is worse, actually. The gods were not exactly good for this world when they were here before.”

My eyes widen as Flame continues, “ Dividing the world and causing fear and chaos is, unfortunately, necessary for as long as Salem does not have any of the four relics. This makes Ozpin hold off on calling the gods for a while longer. But even if she even gets one of them, the easier way of keeping them separate suddenly becomes possible and of course, she’ll take that route instead.”

Flame looks to me and then towards the vault, “If Salem can simply hold onto one herself and keep it far away from the others, division is no longer needed. One Salem gets a Relic, or Relics, the world can safely be united. And there’s a Relic right here in Atlas outside its vault right now! We can get Knowledge! This eternal fear and division can be stopped tonight! So, help me take it and get it to Salem, she’s already on her way anyways.”

Right as Flame finishes, we hear the elevator starts to move down, and we see Oscar. I run over to the elevator, and Oscar looks fairly confused. I hug Oscar and that makes him look more confused.

“Rough night, okay? Glad to see someone I can trust.”

Oscar glances to Flame then to me and nods, “Where is Ironwood?”

Flame walks up behind me, “Not relevant right now, what did you need?”

Oscar nods, “Neo has the Relic and is taking it!”

“Oh hell nah,” I say, “We’ll go after it.”

Oscar nods and steps onto the elevator and Flame and I step onto the elevator after. I tap into my semblance and see Neo walking to Cinder with it. I look around to identify where they are and tap out and look to where Flame was standing last time.

“They are outside a building, well, on the roof of a building on the east side of the academy. Though I clearly can’t lead you there since I’m blind.”

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“How much farther are we having to run!” Wisteria asks, “We’ve been running this entire time!”

We turn a corner where we see Oscar running down another one.

“Oscar!” I yell and we run up to him, “Where’s Jaune and the others?”

Oscar shrugs. “They went to get away from some soldiers, anyways, I sent Flame and Kyra to go after the Relic.”

“You what?” Wisteria asks, very confused. “Relic?”

“Later,” Adrian says and looks at Oscar. “Where did they go?”

“They came out of the vault? Ironwood...” I say, “No, Kyra wouldn’t do that.”

Oscar looks between Adrian and I. “East side of the academy on a roof, be careful if you follow them. You are going to encounter some very strong people. Neo and Cinder are there, and Kyra and Flame are powerful on their own.”

I nod. “Thanks Oscar.”

We turn and start running back the way we came.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Everything hurts, and I’m being used as a hostage by an insane serial killer. Today is going great. Really. Couldn’t be better. Fuck my life.

With his free hand, Tyrian swings at Clover and Clover uses Kingfisher to block. Tyrian holds up his tail ready to strike and… wait. Where’s Qrow?

Movement catches my eye, and as subtly as I can, I look up. I don’t see Qrow. I see a crow, or maybe a raven or a blackbird or something. But it’s not the Qrow. Except it darts down, coming between me and Tyrian, and suddenly it turns out it is, in fact, the Qrow.

Qrow kicks Tyrian away from me and says, firmly, “Stay out of this.”

I give him a thumbs-up. I have some questions, but they can wait, and kind of need to. If everything didn’t hurt so much I’d probably try and take a video again. As it is, I watch as Clover moves, until both of them are standing between me and Robyn on one side, and Tyrian on the other.

“Had enough yet?” Clover says from Qrow’s side.

Tyrian laughs. “Have I had enough? Not till every one of you is dead. I think you should be first, don’t you, pretty boy?”

Qrow growls and runs forward, but trips over thin air and falls, his scythe goes flying across the snow towards Robyn and I. Clover runs to Qrows side and leans down to make sure Qrow is okay. I look to Tyrian who is running towards Harbinger. He looks to Clover, then to Harbinger and smirks.

Oh fuck. He’s going to stab Clover. Adrenaline surges through my body. I grab for my polearm and force myself to stand as Tyrian grabs Harbinger. Tyrian runs for Clover, and I run for Tyrian.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Cinder,” Flame says as we finally get to the top of the roof.

Cinder and Neo both turn around to face both Flame and I. Cinder frowns at Flame.

“Flame, what are you doing here.”

“I could be asking you the same thing, you have been out of contact for well over a month,” Flame continues.

I look between Cinder and Flame. Ah, Cinder is that girl who told me everything. Flame continues, “Give me the Relic, Cinder.”

“Why would I do that?” Cinder says. “I think, after everything, I deserve a reward. Don’t you?”

Cinder instantly has two red, glass looking blades in her hand as she runs towards Flame. I grab Crystal Thorn and block her before she gets to Flame and one of her glass blades shatters, so she instantly respawns another one.

“I never pegged you for the type to end up working for Salem,” Cinder growls as she blocks my scythe with her blades.

I jump backward, “I’m not, and never will.”

Cinder comes running after me and I swing my scythe in front of me which blocks her oncoming attack. I then quickly hand off my scythe to my right hand and flip it over so the blade is pointing to the ground before throwing it backward, going under my arm and up.

Cinder jumps out of the way and shoots fire from her hand at me, which I use Crystal Thorn to block. She respawns her blades and I point the barrel of the gun on Crystal Thorn backward and pull the trigger to propel me forward. As I approach Cinder I swing my scythe over my shoulder to meet Cinder’s waiting blades.

I sigh as I shoot my gun again to throw me backward where I meet Flame, “How is it going?”

Flame kicks Neo away from her. “Going just fine.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Cinder come flying at me. I duck and roll under her. I quickly stand up and take my chance to run at Cinder. I swing Crystal Thorn to the side and she steps back and kicks my legs out from under me.

I fall to the ground, my hand still gripping Crystal Thorn.

I see Cinder’s blade above me and I flick a switch on Crystal Thorn to retract it back to it’s carrying form.

“I really didn’t want to kill you, you know? You seemed like a nice work partner.”

I roll my eyes. “I was hardly a work partner, and I won’t be dying today. I’ve escaped death too much to be killed by some lowlife like you.”

I grab Crystal Thorn and point it at her and pull the trigger, the bullet hits her shoulder and Cinder stumbles back. I get up and turn around and shoot at Neo while she is distracted. I miss and just as I turn around a blade comes and slices my side. I groan and see Flame has engaged in a fight with Cinder now.

Neo runs over to me and throws a fist out in my direction. I hook Crystal Thorn onto my belt and use my other arm to block Neo’s incoming fist. I kick my legs out and she jumps as she grabs my arms and throws me over her shoulder.

I land on my feet and I hold my fists up. I run at Neo and duck down to avoid her fist and slide to the side of her and bring my fist down onto the back of her head. She spins around and knees me in the gut and I stumble back.

When I look up I see Neo running towards me. I raise my arms to form an X as her fists meet my arms. This time I succeed in kicking her legs out from under her and Neo falls to the ground.

Neo jumps back onto her feet and I throw out my arm and punch her in the face. She in retaliation punches me in the neck. I groan as I hold my neck, which just popped. Not out of place, just popped.

Neo uses this opportunity to knock me off my feet and pull out her umbrella and have the needle out. I’m getting a little deja vu here. I roll out of the way and stand up as Flame comes and kicks Neo back to where Cinder was standing and Flame comes and stands by me. 

Flame looks to me, then to Cinder. “One last time, Cinder, give us the Relic.”

I throw my arms out, “Us? I’m not going anywhere with you!”

Flame looks to me and smirks as her eyes turn red, “Oh yes you are.”

Her fist comes out of nowhere, right into my face. Brilliant, just brilliant. What even has this night turned into? Why do I feel no one has my back, again? Why is this just a repeating process that every time I get close to someone they leave? Why did Flame have to leave, or is it my fault for trusting her in the first place?

I turn around and punch Flame in the cheek and kick her away from me and I grab Crystal Thorn and hold it with my right hand.

“We don’t have to fight, Kyra. Just come with me peacefully and I won’t have to hurt you.”

I lean against my scythe as I look at Flame. I tear rolls down my cheek and I wipe it away with the palm of my hand.

“I would never come with you. I’m not a cold-blooded murderer!” I scream back at Flame.

Flame smiles, “I’m not a cold-blooded murderer, I’m just doing what is right, if you can’t see that, then that is your own fault.”

I see Cinder knock Neo down to where Flame is standing and Cinder comes and stands by me, I look to Cinder and back down to Neo and Flame. I really don’t want to fight them, I really don’t. 

I sigh as I aim my gun backward and pull the trigger as I propel myself towards Neo, and Cinder goes to where Flame is.

I swing my scythe under my arm and up to hook it on Neo’s umbrella. I smirk and shoot, the shot hits the ground sadly and Neo’s umbrella goes flying. Neo runs after her umbrella and I take the chance to reload the ammo in my gun. I could have tried to stop her from getting her umbrella, but I was really running low on ammo.

Neo grabs her umbrella and starts to run back over to me. I block her attack and run to the other side of her while shooting at her. She opens up her umbrella to block the shots and starts running back over to me. I swing my scythe over my shoulder and Neo blocks using her umbrella.

I see Neo kick out her feet and use the opportunity to jump up and kick Neo back, successfully landing on my feet. I look to Flame and see her running towards me. I step to the side and she runs past me and her staff meets Neo’s parasol.

I sigh and turn to Cinder who shoots more fire at Neo and Flame. The fire hits flame and Flame instantly turns back and starts to fight Cinder again.

Neo smirks and puts her umbrella over her shoulder. I run towards Neo and once I get to her I swing my scythe to the side and she jumps out of the way. I sigh before turning to where Neo is standing, or where I was previously standing.

I groan when all of a sudden I see Flame coming towards me once more. I swear is everyone out to-

I see Cinder runs towards us and knocks Flame away from me, which effectively knocks me away as well. I stand back up and look to Cinder. I run towards Cinder, and Flame shoots at her. 

I run behind Cinder and swing at her, but Neo blocks it. I groan and kick Neo away. I run by Flame and load fire dust into my scythe and shoot it towards Cinder and Neo. Flame and I take our shots at them, as they just as effectively dodge all of our shots. I never said I have good aim.

As a shot from Flame hits Cinder, Neo grabs the Relic from Cinder and rolls off with it. I throw my head back and chase after Neo.

I load some ice dust into my gun and shoot it at Neo’s leg. Her leg gets frozen in the ice which allows me to get a hit on her with my scythe just before I see Flame loading up- oh fuck no.

I run sideways as she shoots. I scream as I roll to the side. There is a big explosion to the side of me and I see the Relic roll to the side. I crawl over and grab the Relic. I hear coughing from somewhere nearby. I grab the relic and hook it to my belt as I turn to see Cinder and Flame fighting. I put a hand to my forehead as I cough a bit before getting up. Was Flame trying to blow us both to smithereens?

I stand up and wobble on my feet for a second before Neo comes flying out of the smoke after me. I hold up Crystal Thorn to block her attack just as I feel something hit my side. I turn to see Cinder smirking as she shoots more fire at me. This time I jump out of the way and run towards the other side of the rooftop than her.

I think now would be a great time to run. I run around the rooftop dodging Cinder and Neo. I can’t run forever though. I turn and start to run towards Cinder and shatter her glass weapons before kicking her away from me and go to hit Neo who blocks my scythe. I look to Flame and see Cinder blocking Flame’s shots. I run over to Cinder and jump and shoot up to propel me up before spinning down onto where Cinder was previously standing. 

The impact knocks Cinder and Neo backward and their auras flicker. I look to Flame and run by her.

Cinder continues to shoot fire at me and I run around dodging them. I see Flame out of the corner of my eye shoot Cinder so I line up and shoot Cinder as well, her aura flickers then shatter. 

I turn around and get knocked to the ground by Neo who has her hand wrapped around my throat. My eyes widen as I try to kick her off me. I see flames come from the corner of my eye and they hit Neo. Neo flies off me and her aura shatters as well.

I look over to Cinder just in time to see Cinder run away. I look to Flame then to Neo. I see Neo running at me. I grab onto Neo’s upper Arms and we both spin in the air. I feel the Relic come off it’s hook on my belt and clatter across the surface of the roof. I land on my feet as Neo falls to the ground. I point my gun at Neo as I approach her, ready to knock her out when Flame says, “Wait, Kyra.”

I look over to see Flame picking up the Relic. My eyes flicker between Neo and Flame, not knowing what to do.

“You have two choices. Come with us and work for Salem, or die here now.”

I sigh, “First off, I’m not going with you. Second of all, I’m not killing Neo!”

“Well I just might.” Flame walks over and looks down at Neo. “Or I might not. Come with us and work for Salem directly, and you can still have revenge on Ruby.”

Neo looks between us and holds out her hand for Flame to take it. Flame nods and turns to me, throwing gravity bolas around my waist. 

My eyes widen in surprise as Crystal Thorn goes sliding away from me.

“Flame?” I ask, my voice not holding a very steady tone.

Flame grabs my upper arm to help me up off the floor. “I’m sorry it had to come to this.”

My mind floods with thoughts and all thoughts of escape go out the window as hopelessness sets in.

“You really aren’t sad you manipulative bitch!” I exclaim before looking down as I get dragged along, “Why did you have to come into my life just to fucking leave like everyone else!”

I hear Flame sigh. “I really like you Kyra, I really do. I just wish I could get you to see the world like I do.”

I feel a few tears start rolling down my face, “You… I… don’t know you. All you did was use me so you could get what Salem wanted! Who are you? I’m not friends with the heartless killer you are! You don’t have to kill to get what you want!”

“Sometimes things get worse before they get better,” Flame says. “Sometimes you have to do things you may not want to, even knowing it’s for the best.”

“You use death as a threat! Ironwood might have gone mad, but he didn’t deserve to die! He did a lot of good in his life, Flame. He made a couple of mistakes and would pay for those, but you didn’t need to kill him. You didn’t have to threaten to kill Neo. I wonder how many other people you’ve killed!”

“I’m not any different than when you first met me, Kyra.” Flame says.

“You are worlds different, don’t give me that shit!” I scream as more tears start rolling down my face, “The Flame I knew wouldn’t threaten to kill people or hurt me on purpose. The Flame I knew wouldn’t take me away from my friends.”

“How long will those so-called friends of yours stay your friends?” 

“They sure are much better friends than you!” I say, “They actually care about my wellbeing!”

“Then why did they let you do all the reckless things you did?”

I look to the ground as Flame pulls me along. They surely care for me, right? They wouldn’t just abandon me after they realize what happened, or would they? No, they aren’t Flame. They care about me… right?

————————————————————————————

We climb up onto the roof and we look around. I see Crystal Thorn thrown on the ground and I run over and pick it up. Damn, this is heavy, how does she carry this.

“Wisteria! Get over here!” I yell at Wisteria.

Wisteria runs over to me and I hand Crystal Thorn to her. “Hold onto this, and don’t lose it, scratch it, or somehow break it. If you do, Kyra will break you.”

I turn back to Adrian as I see him squinting at something in the distance. “See anything, Adrian.”

Adrian nods. “I think I see Kyra and Flame in the distance.”

I look forward and see nothing out of the ordinary and I raise an eyebrow, “I don’t see anything.”

Adrian laughs. “I latch onto the details. I don’t think we can catch up to them before they get to their destination. Wisteria, do you know where the security room is?”

Wisteria nods. “It’s on the first floor of the academy, which is either going to be heavily guarded or not at all. Honestly, at this point I don’t know.”

I nod, “Let’s go.”

As we arrive at the Academy I see two guards at the front door. I nod to Wisteria and Adrian and they run up and start fighting the guards, which isn’t much of a fight as I run into the academy and run in the direction Wisteria told me to run in.

When I arrive I look in and see the room has been cleared out. I sigh, at least I have a little good luck left. I run over to the seat and sit down. I touch the computer and pray my semblance has come off it cool down. I send the command and it brings me to a certain camera. I play the video as Adrian and Wisteria run into the room.

“Did you get it Caiden?”

I nod, “I did.”

I stop just in time to see Cinder and Neo approach the roof. I frown and hit play again, where I see Flame and Kyra climb up onto the roof, and long story short, a fight initiates. Cinder flees the scene and Kyra knocks Neo to the ground and points Crystal Thorn at her. Flame must have said something because then Neo extends her hand and Flame takes it. Not even a moment afterward, Kyra is on the ground wrapped up in gravity bolas.

I’m about to pause the video when Flame turns around and I see a symbol on her back. I frown at the symbol.

“Salem’s symbol…” Adrian says.

I start copying the video to my scroll when it finally hits me, “Kyra was kidnapped by Flame? And she is working for Salem?”

“From what I’ve gathered, that is not good,” Wisteria adds.

“Fuck!” I scream as I grab my scroll when I see Maria is calling.“Wait, what?” I answer the call.

I hear Maria laughing, “Where are you lot?”

“We are in the security room, Kyra got kidnapped!”

From the background, I hear an, “Oh shit.”

Maria talks again, “Get to the 5th floor and I’ll pick you guys up there.”

“Sure thing!” I say as I put my scroll away and run for the stairs.

“Stairs again?” Wisteria groans.

“I don’t want to take the chance with the elevator,” I say as we all start flying up the many, many flights of stairs.

When we finally arrive up the stairs I hear a ship hovering nearby. I run to the right, then hang another right. I hop onto the ship, and Wisteria and Adrian are in close pursuit.

“We aren’t going to leave Kyra, right?” Caiden asks looking to Maria.

“We need to high-tail it out of here after we find Qrow, Robyn, and Ray.” Maria says and I hear Sandra from behind me, “I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Kyra, I’m sure can handle herself, and none of us would want to leave her entirely. We’ll get her back before we go anywhere far.”

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tyrian’s faster than me. More importantly, Tyrian’s faster than me, and neither Clover or Qrow see him. He lines up to strike.

“Look out!” I yell, just as a well-aimed crossbow bolt finds its mark in Tyrian’s hands. It explodes on impact. He screams, although I honestly couldn’t tell whether it’s out of pain or some fucked up version of pleasure. And, in a last effort to do something… he throws Harbinger by the blade.

It misses. Barely, but it does, and conveniently enough lands perfectly for Qrow to pick it up and get back to his feet, still somewhat shaky. Clover helps him up with wide eyes. I drop to my knees, leaning heavily on my polearm for support, and look back at the wreckage.

Robyn waves. “Hi.”

Clover walks over, helps me up. We move farther away from Tyrian and towards Robyn when Qrow says, “It’s a 4v1, give up.”

I snort under my breath, “I don’t think I can do much.”

“Me either,” Robyn offers. “But don’t tell tall, dark, and insane over there that.”

“3v1, then.” Clover laughs a bit as he sets me down and turns back to Qrow. “The two of you count as one.”

Tyrian looks ready to come back and fight us when we hear a ship overhead. Tyrian looks up at it and grins. Does he have any other expressions? Honestly.

“Ah, it looks like our score will have to wait. You know my track record with the authorities!”

Tyrian runs off into the distance. Qrow and Clover look to each other, then walk over to us. Qrow pulls out his scroll.

“Thanks for the backup, Ray, Robyn. That could’ve been bad,” Clover says, “You are alright?”

“Not at all,” Robyn says with a grin. “I’ll live.”

I roll my eyes. “You would have died. And yes, I’m fine. Ish.”

Clover raises an eyebrow but the ship lands and armed guards come running out. Clover glances to Qrow who nods. They both hold out their weapons and run at the guards who shoot at them.

Eventually, they knock all the guards out and Clover helps me up while Qrow helps a now awake Robyn up. We all enter the ship when we hear another ship landing and Qrow groans, “What is this? Another prison transport?”

“No, I don’t think so,” Clover says. “I have a good feeling about this one.”

Ruby runs out and onto our ship. She waves at Clover and the rest of us, then runs over and hugs Qrow.

“Uncle Qrow!!! You’re okay!!”

Qrow ruffles Ruby’s hair. “How are you guys doing?”

Ruby nods, “We have everyone on board... Well except Kyra, but! Yang is doing fine!”

Clover and I both look at Ruby when Clover says, “Everyone but Kyra?”

Ruby nods. “Caiden can show you when we get back on the ship.”

We all move over to the other ship and Caiden stands up and starts to play a video, one where Kyra very much gets kidnapped. By Flame. And I thought today’s bullshit was over.

“Do we know where they are going?” I ask Caiden.

Caiden’s face falls as they shake their head, “No, sadly.”

Maria speaks from the front. “And we are getting away from here till we do know where she is.”

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When we arrive at the shipyard a uniformed guy steps out in front of us, ah, please not another bootlicker. One of his eyes is purple, the other is blue. There’s a nametag neatly pinned to his shirt reading Altair Rod, and I genuinely can’t tell if that’s his name or a unit name or something else entirely. 

He looks at all three of us and says, “You’re all under arrest.”

He’s another bootlicker. Flame’s eyes turn red as she throws me to the side. I bang into the fence and Flame and Neo start to fight the guy. Mostly Flame though since Neo doesn’t have aura and could get seriously hurt.

I start to wiggle in my restraints as they are all distracted till they wrap around my legs now. I use my hands to push them down my legs till they fall off onto the ground.

I look up to see no one has noticed I had gotten free. I stand up just as the guy hits Flame, shattering the rest of her aura. I reach behind me to grab Crystal Thorn. Shit, that’s right, I left it on top of the roof.

The guy kicks Flame back and walks towards me. “Don’t make me hurt you.”

I scoff. “Like I would willingly let you arrest me, you can arrest me over my dead body. And I’m not even who you should be worried about.”

The guy points his sword towards me and runs at me. I jump out of the way and use the opportunity to punch him in the back of the head.

I look over my shoulder to see Flame and Neo watching this go down. I sigh and focus back on the guy.

He looks back at me and runs at me again. I duck down to avoid the strike and roll to the side. He looks at me and throws his sword towards me. My eyes widen as the sword flies and hits my shoulder, shattering the rest of my aura.

I grab my shoulder and I look at the guy when he says, “Just give up, none of you have aura and mine is mostly intact.”

I close my eyes then open them again. “Like I said, over my dead body.”

The guy runs at me again and I flip backward and land on the chain fence. His sword goes through one of the holes in the chain fence and I run to the side before he can get it out.

He comes running at me again and I go to move over the side when I trip over a rock and his sword grazes my side. I hit the ground and stand up, holding my side.

It wasn’t a deep cut, but goddamn does it hurt, but I really can’t think about that right now. He comes running at me again. I jump and hook my hands into the fence and climb a second before his sword once again goes through the holes in the fence. I jump off the fence as I kick his face into the fence. I land on the ground and I stagger a moment before I look up to see him staring at me again.

I see Flame out of the corner of my eye hold up her staff, ready to fire. The man starts running at me again and I see Flame shoot in our direction. I run to the side. The bullet hits the ground which throws his sword.

I look down and my eyes widen as my mouth gapes open as I see his sword going through my lower abdomen. He quickly retracts his sword and I fall to the ground screaming in pain. My blood reflecting off his sword. Flame and Neo run over to me and Flame picks me up while Neo knocks the guy back and they run for the shipyard.

Once we get on the ship and Flame takes off, Neo is trying to find something. My hand finds the stab wound and my eyes shut when I feel Neo’s presence in front of me.  
\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Do you even know where we are going?” I ask Maria 

Maria laughs, “We’ll end up where we end up. Now stop asking questions and go sit down.”

I sigh as I go and sit down and Ray puts an arm over my shoulder, “Everything will be alright.”

I nod to acknowledge Ray when I hear a voice come through the airship coms.

“We’ve got multiple hostiles on radar. Is anyone else seeing this?”

Another voice comes through, “These readings can’t be right…”

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We touch down. Flame heaves me up onto my feet and I groan. Neo got the bleeding temporarily slowed, I doubt it’s stopped. I really need a doctor but that clearly isn’t happening, I might as well just drop dead right now. Get it over with.

Flame sets me on the ground and Neo stands next to me. Flame walks over to Salem, “My assignment is complete, Your Grace. Kyra Baki has been captured, and General Ironwood will fear no more. The Relic I captured from Cinder, who I do not believe intended to give it to you. She has fled, uninjured but alone. Neo was her accomplice, but she may prove loyal if we can deliver her revenge on Ruby. I have no news of Tyrian or the Winter Maiden.”

Salem smiles at Flame and looks back at Neo and I and walks towards us. Flame steps to the side as she walks towards us.

“Kyra Baki... I’ve heard a lot about you. You’ve been a person of interest for quite some time actually. Quite fortuitous that you ended up here, exactly where my most successful team could find you. I mean you no harm,” Salem starts. Oh yeah, you mean me no harm?! Salem holds out her hand a beam of light comes from it and all of a sudden I don’t feel like I’m dying anymore. Salem continues.

“There. You’ll live. I trust one of Flame has told you what to do? I am offering you a job, Kyra. And I would like you to accept it. You too Neo. I appreciate skilled fighters with useful Semblances. One Relic is a very good start. But I would like three. What do you say? Help me recover the sword and the crown, and thereby save Remnant from slavery or destruction?”

I look around and stay silent. What am I supposed to say? I can’t accept, but I’m not in a situation to not accept. She also healed my stab wound, which was going to be fatal. Salem starts speaking again.

“Still thinking it over? I was told you find it difficult to stay silent for very long. Let me rephrase the question. Do you want to see Atlas go the way of Beacon? No? Neither do I. Regardless of what happens, it would be undeniably useful if we could persuade the Winter Maiden to cooperate. Maybe you could tell us all what’s happening to her right now?”

My mind flashes to Caiden and to the rest of the team, who are on Atlas right now. Would they die?

“Ironwood sent Winter to claim the power of the Winter Maiden, that’s all I know.”

“As expected. But what is Winter doing, at this very moment? I know you have the ability to tell me.”

I frown. “Do you know how my semblance works? It’s downsides more than me going just temporarily blind?”

“Downsides? No... though I’m sure it’s nothing we can’t work around. Even with limits, your Semblance is better than any spy.”

Might as well get all my options on the table. “And what will happen if I refuse to use it?”

Salem walks a bit closer. “Then I would be very disappointed. You should speak with Tyrian. He can tell you exactly how devastating hearing those words can be. Although, he did redeem himself somewhat here in Atlas. Flame, on the other hand, have always been remarkably successful. Wouldn’t you like to do just as well as your new friends here?”

I sigh. “Why does everyone keep saying Flame is my friend? Friends don’t kidnap me. If anything the person she was pretending to be is my friend,” I pause and look down, “But it seems like I have no other choice.”

“They,” Salem says, “but please continue.”

I tap into my semblance and see Winter surrounded by doctors in what looks like a hospital.

I see her holding her scroll, looking down on it she has her and Ironwood’s messages up and it reads, “It’s gone.”

I quickly tap out of my semblance. “Winter isn’t the Winter Maiden. She’s in the hospital.” 

“Well, that is unfortunate… assuming you’re being truthful about what you see. I do hope the Maiden is still in Atlas and not scattered randomly across the face of Remnant. That will do for now. Thank you, Kyra. I believe you’ll do well here, in time. After all, don’t you know the old saying? If you can’t beat me, join me? You would do well to keep that in mind.”

Flame smiles. “In that case, shall we return?”

Salem considers this for a moment, then nods. “Yes. We have everything we came for initially, and a bonus. While obtaining Creation would have been useful… Kyra.”

I glare at her. “What do you want?”

“If we are truly the heartless monsters you believe us to be,” she sweeps an arm to indicate herself, Flame, and Neo, “then to take Creation would be the natural next move. Tell me, Kyra. Do you know why I won’t?”

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I walk over to Adrian who is looking at the whale Grimm with binoculars.

“Do you see anything?” I ask from behind him.

Adrian nods. “I think Salem, Flame, Neo, and Kyra are up there.”

I turn around. “Maria! Kyra is on the whale Grimm!”

“Absolutely not,” Maria says. “What did I miss? Did you all suddenly decide, collectively, ‘ah yes, let’s go get ourselves killed fighting something like THAT?’”

“What about my eyes?” Ruby asks, earning confused looks from about half of the group, myself included.

“You barely brought down that leviathan, this is even bigger. I’m not sure it would work even if I still had mine and went with you.”

More confused looks, this time spread between Maria and Ruby. What are they talking about?  
“It looks like it’s…” Qrow squints out the window, looks to Adrian. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“It’s… retreating,” Adrian confirms. “But there’s too many Grimm. We can’t get close.”

“I could.”

A little less than half of the aircraft looks confused. Again, me included. Clover puts a hand on his shoulder. They look into each other’s eyes, and Clover slowly shakes his head. Still. Kyra may have had a point about these two.

“Tyrian saw you transform. If Salem knows…” Clover frowns. “Kyra’s alive, and if Salem didn’t want her alive she wouldn’t have had Flame kidnap her. We have time to regroup and save her. Right now…”

“Run and live?” Jaune offers hopefully.

“Music to my ears!” Maria swings the airship around. Even as she does, she glances back at the retreating whale, and frowns. “I do hope she’s okay.”

“Well, she’s clearly not okay, she’s been kidnapped by Salem.” Caiden is practically glued to the window, even more so than anyone else. “I… trusted Flame. We all did.”

“Maybe she had a good reason?” Ray says. “Maybe she’s a double agent or something!”

“Maybe she is. Maybe she isn’t.” Qrow sighs. “Best thing we can do is stay alive, and hope either we find Kyra or Kyra finds us. Is nobody else at all concerned about the fact that Salem is leaving? After she massed an army of Grimm to attack Atlas?”

“Well,” Ruby says, “she’s leaving, isn’t she?”  
Nobody knows the answer to that for certain, but as the airship continues to fly away, it definitely looks like Salem is leaving. And, at the end of the day, she does.

The army of Grimm she brought with her, unfortunately, does not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We all know I never write notes.. but yeah!!!! Oh, this is chapter 13, the so-called unlucky number. Number 13 really isn't that unlucky though. Anyways, thank you everyone who has left Kudos and comments on this!! I can't wait to start writing the next part to this series.. which is called Revolution.
> 
> JUST AAA, thank you everyone for the support, and it has been so much fun!!!1 I'm like horrible at these notes but <3


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